System and method for providing a micro-services communication platform

ABSTRACT

A multi-tenant media communication platform system and methods. The platform system includes media communication micro-services and micro-service configuration for a plurality of entities configured for use of the platform system. Enrolling an entity in the platform system includes setting entity configuration for use of the platform system by the entity. A micro-service request is processed according to the entity configuration. The micro-service request is a request for use of at least one micro-service of the platform system on behalf of the entity. Use of each micro-service is accounted for on behalf of the entity. Billing information for the entity is generated based on the accounting for the use of each micro-service on behalf of the entity. Entity configuration includes micro-service configuration, and micro-service configuration specifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to at least one application logic URI, an event callback URI, and an event application logic URI.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/842,731 filed 14 Dec. 2017, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/297,857, filed 19 Oct. 2016, which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/141,624, filed 28Apr. 2016, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/919,650, filed 21 Oct. 2015, which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/066,763, filed on 21 Oct. 2014, U.S.Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/066,766, filed on 21 Oct. 2014, U.S.Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/066,768, filed on 21 Oct. 2014, U.S.Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/066,774, filed on 21 Oct. 2014, andU.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/066,776, filed on 21 Oct. 2014,which are incorporated in their entirety by this reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates generally to the communication platform field,and more specifically to a new and useful system and method forproviding a micro-services communication platform in the communicationplatform field.

BACKGROUND

The rise of smart phones and the merging of communication andapplications have caused a proliferation of modes of communication.Additionally, new communication platforms have provided tools tointegrate phone calls, text messaging, and other forms of communication.Many solutions lack basic features that enable easy integration with asystem built for particular forms of communication. Other platforms arebuilt for the general public and as such have additional features thatmay not be utilized uniformly across all users, which can cause suchsolutions to be unfeasible in terms of cost and functional overhead.However, building out the infrastructure to support the communicationapplication may require tremendous amounts of engineering resources bothto build and maintain such a solution. Thus, there is a need in thecommunication platform field to create a new and useful system andmethod for providing a micro-services communication platform. Thisinvention provides such a new and useful system and method.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a system of a preferredembodiment;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram representation of a method of a preferredembodiment;

FIGS. 3A and 3B are exemplary scenarios of a variation of transitioningusage of micro-services;

FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of a variation of a queuing system;

FIG. 5 is block diagram representation of a method of a queuingvariation;

FIG. 6 is a schematic representation of a variation of metering usage;

FIG. 7 is a table representation of exemplary mappings of programmaticmechanisms;

FIG. 8 is a schematic representation of executing use of a callback URI;

FIG. 9 is a schematic representation of executing retrievableapplication logic;

FIG. 10 is a schematic representation of regionally distributedresources;

FIG. 11 is a schematic representation of setting configuration ofaccounts and sub-accounts;

FIG. 12 is a schematic representation of an exemplary micro-service andCPaaS feature matrix;

FIG. 13 is a schematic representation of a system of a preferredembodiment;

FIG. 14 is an exemplary schematic representation of an instance ofintegrating network discovery service with supplemental media services;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart representation of a method of a preferredembodiment;

FIG. 16 is a detailed flowchart of a method of a preferred embodiment;

FIG. 17 is a communication sequence diagram of a method of a preferredembodiment;

FIG. 18 is a schematic representation of application of the methodacross multiple accounts and network discovery sessions;

FIG. 19 is a schematic representation of registered entities andconfiguration;

FIG. 20 is a communication sequence diagram of a variation includingqueuing and dequeuing requests;

FIGS. 21A and 21B are schematic representations of interfacing with asecond media service for synchronous media mutation;

FIG. 22 is a schematic representation of interfacing with a second mediaservice for asynchronous media mutation;

FIG. 23 is a schematic representation of a multi-layered communicationstack;

FIGS. 24A and 24B are schematic representations of a system of apreferred embodiment;

FIG. 25 is a schematic representation of an exemplary system of apreferred embodiment;

FIG. 26 is a block diagram representation of a method of a preferredembodiment;

FIG. 27 is a block diagram representation of a method of a preferredembodiment; and

FIG. 28 is an architecture diagram of a system of a preferredembodiment.

FIG. 29 is an architecture diagram of an external system.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following description of preferred embodiments of the invention isnot intended to limit the invention to these preferred embodiments, butrather to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use thisinvention.

1. SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A MICRO-SERVICES COMMUNICATION PLATFORM

As shown in FIG. 1, a system and method for providing a micro-servicescommunication platform of a preferred embodiment functions to provide aset of fundamental elements that can be composed to build modernmulti-modal communication systems. There are various applications thatdepend on a similar set of basic communication resource primitives.While individual communication applications may have individually builta single tenant solution, doing so requires a tremendous amount ofresources in building, deploying, scaling. Even when deployed suchsolutions are limited by the knowledge held within that single solution.A platform has not extracted and offered one or more communicationprimitives as multi-tenant solution. Further, many communicationapplications are developed in an environment that is dependent on thecapability to scale with user demand. Thus, to build such aninfrastructure independently would be prohibitive to accomplish withoutsignificant investment. However, there are additionally numerouscommunication applications that benefit from building communicationinteractions off of basic communication resource primitives and buildinghigher abstractions on top of such resources.

The system and methods of preferred embodiments can preferably offer aheterogeneous mix of communication resources as accessible multitenantresources facilitating at least one communication micro-serviceprimitive. Users (i.e., applications and services of account holders inthe communication platform) can preferably select appropriate types ofprimitives in the platform that are needed to facilitate the mediacommunication resource gap in their communication application. Users cancompose various micro communication services to fulfill a role of acommunication primitive but in a programmatic, flexible, and scalablemanner. The micro-services can serve any suitable combination ofsignaling, media processing, informational analysis, hosting, and/or anysuitable communication service. Through providing a micro communicationservice within a multitenant communication platform, other communicationprimitive as a service (CPaaS) features in areas such as security,metering, logging, billing, programmatic integration, quality control,fraud and policy enforcement, multi-modal capabilities, dynamic resourcescaling, and other suitable aspects may be enables.

The micro-services communication platform (MSCP) can be used infacilitating communication in a service based network solutions. TheMSCP may alternatively be applied to peer-to-peer communication networksolutions. A variety of micro-services can be provided such as a:identity/presence service, a network discovery service (e.g., STUN/TURNservice), a media transcoding service, a conferencing/mixing service, aninteractive voice response services, a DTMF detection services, a mediaintelligence services (text to speech service, speech recognition,sentiment detection, answering machine detection service), and/or anysuitable type of micro-service. As one example use, an outside developercan employ the use of the network discovery service of the MSCP whenbuilding out a video communication service. Instead of building out aSTUN/TURN service, the application can seamlessly leverage the existingmicro-service of network discovery to negotiate communicating with anendpoint behind a network address translator (NAT) or a firewall. Asanother exemplary use, an outside developer can employ the use of thetranscoding micro-service, which enables media to be routed throughtranscoding media servers of the system and facilitate transcodingoperations such as handling codec translation, bit-rate compensation,resizing, and/or other transcoding operations. In other use cases,multiple micro-services can be used in isolation or combination inbuilding a communication application.

System Overview

As shown in FIG. 1, a system 100 of a preferred embodiment may include amedia service system 110, a signaling control system 120, and a set ofoperational services (e.g., 130, 140, 150, 160, 170, 180 and 190 of FIG.1). The system 100 functions to provide one or more media-relatedmicro-service to outside applications and services. The system 100 ispreferably part of a multitenant communication platform in which variousaccounts or other suitable entities can establish and manageapplication/service integration with one or more micro-service. Inaddition to providing one or more micro-services, the system 100functions to provide a set of platform specific aspects that enableproviding such a set of micro-services. The system is preferablymultitenant, wherein the multitenant system provides: mechanisms formetering, logging, and billing; a set of security and monitoringfeatures built into operation of the platform; various programmatichooks to better integrate an outside application with the micro-serviceoffering of the system; distributed scalability and quality management;and/or other various aspects, which are described in more detail below.

The media service system 110 of a preferred embodiment functions toprovide a scalable set of distributed media processing resources thatfacilitates one or more processes of a communication. The media servicesystem is preferably a set of media servers that run on machines,virtual machines, containers, or other computing environments inside adistributed computing infrastructure. The media service system ispreferably hosted in a remote computing environment. The media servicesystem preferably includes a set of different types of mediamicro-services. The media micro-services can be instantiated as aservice instance within a host, a server, a machine, a virtual machine,or any suitable component. A single host (or other suitable computingcomponent) may provide only a single micro-service, but may additionallyor alternatively provide a set of different micro-services. The mediaservice system may be hosted within a single computing cluster, but morepreferably is distributed across various clusters and/or operationalregions. In one variation, media service sub-systems can be deployed indifferent geographical regions to provide improved regional performance.

The media micro-services 111-113 can provide a variety of media relatedservices. Media micro-services can be synchronous or asynchronous. Asynchronous media micro-service operates on a media stream in real-time.Operating on a media stream can include mixing streams,translating/transcoding streams, compositing streams, or otherwiseallowing arbitrary low-latency computation on a media stream. Asynchronous media micro-service can be used in altering a live mediastream or providing substantially real-time information of that mediastream. An asynchronous media micro-service operates on the media streamindependent of the active media stream. An asynchronous mediamicro-service processes and/or transforms a stored representation of themedia stream. Asynchronous media processing can enable computations thathave a processing time that would impact latency of a real-time mediastream. Asynchronous media processing could include processing such assentiment detection, speaker identification, object detection, facedetection, and/or other processing operations. A media micro-service canbe a mutable or immutable service. A mutable media micro-servicepreferably alters, manipulates, and/or augments the communicated stream.The transcoding media can convert between media formats. As an example,a transcoding media server may convert between various codecs such asSpeex used in mobile operating system applications (e.g., iOS andAndroid), Opus used in web and WebRTC applications, and PCMU used inPSTN and other media services. Any suitable codec or mediatransformation may alternatively be performed. A transcoding mediaservice can additionally translate between media mediums such asconverting a pure audio stream to a video stream or pulling the audiofrom a video into an audio stream. Immutable media servers preferablyinspect, analyze, log, and/or process media streams. A recording mediaservice and a speech detection service can serve as exemplary immutablemedia server.

The media micro-services system 110 can be a substantially homogeneouscluster of identical or similar instances of the same media server. Forexample, a system may provide only one media focused process (i.e., asingle communication primitive) in which case all the media servers maybe substantially similar. The media micro-service may alternatively beheterogeneous containing more than one type of service provided by themedia servers. In one example, there may be a first type of transcodingserver operating on a first software (such as the FreeSWITCH) stackinside of the operating system of a virtual machine, and then a secondtype of transcoding server built to run in the virtual machine. In thisexample, the first type of a media server may be a legacy media service,and the second type may be a new version of the media service. The useof the first and second type may be interchangeable. Alternatively, twoof the media servers may not be interchangeable where each is designedfor a particular purpose. For example, a subset of media servers may befor audio processing and a second subset of media servers for videoprocessing operations.

The signaling control system 120 can function as a distinct service thatmanages signaling of a media stream. In one variation, the signalingcontrol system might be embedded in a separate service that handles bothmedia and signaling (e.g., mobile iOS/Android connection service). Thesignaling control system preferably handles the signaling messaging thatdirects media streams. The signaling control system can maintain stateof the Session Description Protocol (SDP) mechanism of a communicationsession. A communication session preferably includes the media sessionand the directing of signaling messages. The signaling control systemcan preferably communicate SDP information to relevant resources such asan outside client initiating or receiving a communication, or to aninternal resource such as a communication application service. Duringintegration with a media micro-service, use of the signaling controlsystem may be used to facilitate that integration process. The signalingcomponents can similarly be a form of a composable micro-service. Thesignaling components may be used in combination with external mediaresources, but the signaling resources may alternatively be supplied andhandled external to the MSCP when using a media service.

The signaling control system 120 is preferably a service on a computingdevice distinct from that of the media resources (e.g., the media proxyservice 110 and the media server cluster 120). The signaling controlsystem may be on a different host or optionally a different virtualmachine. Operating independently, a communication session can berecovered during a failure of a media or signaling resource. Inparticular, if a host of a media resource, either a media proxy serveror a media server, goes down, the associated signaling control systemfor that communication session can re-establish the media session with adifferent media resource. Additionally, as distinct elements, thesignaling control system can perform asynchronous operations relating toa communication session. For example, a signaling control system mayasynchronously call out to an authentication service, and later act onan authentication response from the authentication service.

The signaling control system 120 can additionally include a set oforchestration services and state managers that function to manage theorchestration, allocation, and state of related services. Theconfiguration of orchestration services and/or states managers may bedifferent depending on the type and function of the provided mediaservices. The orchestration service preferably includes applicationlogic to interface and direct one or more media service state managers.The communication signaling is preferably managed within the signalingcontrol system (i.e., orchestration service). For example, incoming SIPcommunication is directed to a signaling controller. The orchestrationservice then communicates with a media service state manager that setsup media service infrastructure to support the communication. The mediaservice state manager then transmits the information back to theorchestration service, which then negotiates the communication sessionas specified by the media service state manager. A media state managercan include application logic and state information to determine thestate of a particular type of media communication session such as aconferencing media session, a transcoding media session, and the like. Amedia state manager may additionally include application logic tocontrol the state of related media servers. There can be multiple typesor media state managers, which apply different levels of media servicemodeling.

The system 100 can include an account system 130, which functions to mapprocessing of the MSCP to an identity within the system. The system 100is preferably a multitenant platform wherein multiple outside entitiescan create an account within the platform. An account preferablyprovides a set of credentials or an alternative authentication mechanismthrough which requests can be validated. The account system 130 can be amanagement system for different entity identities. The entity identitiescan be persistent identities such as accounts, sub-accounts, and othersubstantially permanent identity constructs. There may additionally oralternatively be ephemeral identities, which can expire according totime condition, usage condition, or any suitable condition. The accountsystem preferably authenticates requests made by an account or othersuitable entities. In one variation, an account identifier and anauthentication token can be included in a request, and theseauthentication credentials are validated by the account system beforethe request is fulfilled. An account may be authenticated when makinguse of a REST API, when receiving signaling communication, during use ofa user interface control panel or at any suitable instance.

Various aspects of an account and usage of the platform can beconfigured through account management interfaces. An account may bemanaged through an account portal user interface. An account mayalternatively be managed through API requests or through any suitablemechanism. Aspects of an account that can be managed include configuringprogrammatic mechanisms and settings when using the MSCP. For example,an account manager could set various callback URIs that are triggeredduring errors or other events in the system. The account manager canfurther define various parameters that will determine how acommunication is routed.

As a related aspect, the system can include a policy engine (e.g., apolicy engine similar to the policy engine 1311 of FIG. 13). The policyengine may be a supplemental component or a sub-component of the accountsystem 130. Policy can be set per account. Accordingly, differentaccounts can have different permissions, capabilities, pricing,capacity, performance, or other aspects, which can be set through anaccount policy. Policy may alternatively be set for a sub-account, forthe entire platform, for a geographic region, or for any suitablecontext. Policy settings may be set by default by the platform but someor all of the policy settings may be driven by an account.

An account can include a defined policy configuration. A policyconfiguration may set particular limitations for account usage withinthe platform. The policy can prevent an application of an outside entityincurring usage that is beyond the scope in which the application ismeant to be used. Micro-service capabilities, amount of data processing,time duration of usage, and other suitable capabilities can regulatedthrough customized policy. Similarly, the policy configuration may limitusage to machines with a particular network address, types of devices,physical geographic location of a device, or other suitable properties.

The account system 130 can additionally include a sub-account mechanism,which functions to enable a user of the platform to partition accountusage to enable multitenancy within a product of the account holder. Thesub-account mechanism preferably accounts for usage, and morespecifically creditable/billable usage to be monitored according to anidentifier for a sub-set of usage by an account. For example, an accountholder may build an outside application platform that depends on thesystem. The outside application platform can similarly be multitenant inthat multiple users can have individually metered and accounted usage.The inheritable multitenancy property of the platform (i.e., thecapability of one account within a multitenant collection of accounts tofurther subdivide usage the account between subclass of accounts). Canpreferably provide the capabilities of a parent account to a subaccountincluding: billing; programmatic customization, allocation ofidentifiers or endpoints; and/or other customization. A billing enginecan cooperatively facilitate delivering billing statements andcollecting payments from the sub-accounts. Additionally, the sub-accountmechanism can establish a hierarchy of policy inheritance. A platformpreferably contains policies that are applied to account. In onevariation, a usage policy is based on the type of account such as freeaccount, basic account, or enterprise-account. A parent account cansimilarly at least partially define the policies of sub-accounts. In onevariation, an account will create sub-account resources.

The media servers (of the media service system 110) can additionallyinclude metering and logging layers (e.g., metering and logging layerssimilar to the metering layer 1313 FIG. 13) of that operate incoordination with the provided media services. The metering and loggingfunction to create a record of notable activities. The metering can beused in providing programmatic hooks (e.g., callback URI triggering,application execution, and the like), billing/crediting an associatedentity (e.g., charging for services or controlling resource access),creation of an audit trail, and/or other suitable functionality. In onevariation, the media services include an instance layer that facilitateslogging and tracking of accountable events. Metering preferably includesrecording who (e.g., which account, sub-account, user, etc.) isassociated with the use of one or more media micro-services and thequantity of usage. The quantity of usage may use different metricsdepending on the type of micro-service. A micro-service may care about:the number of requests or instances of use (e.g., how many sessionsfulfilled for an account); the total time of usage; the amount of datapassed through the media micro-service; and/or any suitable metric. Abilling engine may operate independently of the metering system, but mayalternatively be integrated. A billing engine preferably calculatesamount owed by a particular account/sub-account. The billing engine canadditionally facilitate collecting and distributing of funds asappropriate.

The metering and logging system 140 of the preferred embodimentfunctions to create a monitoring system to the MSCP (e.g., monitoringfor one or more of the signaling control system 120 and the mediaservice system 110). In an implementation, the MSCDP includes thesignaling control system 120 and the media service system 110. Themetering and logging system 140 operates in coordination with theprovided MSCP. In one variation, the metering and logging system isintegrated within an MSCP instance (e.g., one or more of micro-serviceinstances 121, 111, 112 and 113) running on a machine. In anothervariation, the metering and logging system 140 can externally monitorthe actions of the MSCP, wherein the actions of the MSCP may be reportedto the metering and logging system 140 in any suitable manner. Themetering and logging function to create a record of notable activities.The metering can be used in providing programmatic hooks (e.g., callbackURI triggering, application execution, and the like), billing/creditingan associated entity (e.g., charging for services or controllingresource access), creation of an audit trail, and/or other suitablefunctionality. In one variation, a MSCP instance (e.g., 121, 111, 112and 113 of FIG. 1) running on a host includes an instance layer (e.g.,an instance layer similar to the metering layer 1313 of FIG. 13) thatfacilitates logging and tracking of accountable events. Meteringpreferably includes recording who (e.g., which account, sub-account,user, etc.) is associated with the use of media micro-service and thequantity of usage.

In one variation, the metering layer (e.g., an instance layer similar tothe metering layer 1313 of FIG. 13) of an MSCP instance (e.g., 121, 111,112 and 113 of FIG. 1) will record individual events such asinitialization requests, responses to a request, changes to afacilitated communication session, when a communication session ends,and/or any suitable event. The metering layer may additionally measurethe amount of data transfer, the time of communication sessions, and/orany suitable usage metric while facilitating a particular communicationsession. The records are preferably metered and logged in connection toan associated account.

A billing engine (e.g., 150 of FIG. 1) may operate independently of themetering and logging system, but may alternatively be integrated. Abilling engine preferably calculates amount owed by a particularaccount/sub-account. The billing engine can additionally facilitatecollecting and distributing of funds as appropriate. Such accounting maybe used in billing or crediting an entity/account for metered usage,which functions to allow a sustainable MSCP to be operated. In anothervariation, usage accountability can be used in limiting and balancingusage of a particular entity. As the platform is preferably multitenant,usage is preferably balanced across multiple entities. Rate limiting andaction limits may be imposed at various times. Additionally, as use of acommunication infrastructure is often accompanied with significantfinancial cost, fraudulent behavior by accounts or users of an accountcan be harmful to users of the platform and to the platform itself.Fraud detection can additionally be accounted for during usage of theplatform.

The system 100 can additionally include a set of edge media and/orsignaling gateways that interface with a set of providers includecommunication interfaces, which function to bridge media and/orsignaling to outside communication channels. The outside communicationchannels can include PSTN, SIP services, OTT media communicationservices, and/or any suitable communication channel. Access to aparticular channel can similarly be offered as a micro-service withsimilar set of platform mechanisms (e.g., multitenancy, metering andbilling, programmatic mechanisms, security, quality/regional routing).

The system 100 may additionally include a resource management system(e.g., a resource management system similar to the resource managementsystem 1390 of FIG. 13) which functions to scale and orchestrate thecomputing resources that support the MSCP platform. The set of MSCPinstances are preferably scaled so as to support the usage requirementsacross a set of accounts. As a multi-tenant platform, the resources arepreferably shared across accounts. In other words, a MSCP instance usedfor a first account at one time may be used by a second account at adifferent time. The variability of usage requirements for distinctaccount users is preferably normalized across a set of accounts withinthe platform, such that the platform is scaled to support the varyingusage demands of various account holders. The resource management systemcan preferably instantiate more MSCP resources or other services,suspend resources, or terminate service instances. In one variation, ausage model is generated for at least a set of active accounts of theplatform. For the users that use the platform, or alternatively that usethe MSCP platform above a particular threshold, a model may be generatedthat predicts their usage over time. In one instance, an account mayhave a substantially steady state of usage. In another instance, theamount of usage may be a function of time of day, week, month, or year.In another instance, an account may have varying trends that arepredicted in real-time based on past metrics and optionally metrics ofsimilar accounts. As one baseline heuristic for usage prediction, themedia type or application use case may be used to generate a usagemodel. For example, an account may select the type of MSCP usage duringactivation of the micro-service for the account—selecting an option suchas network discovery service, transcoding, recording, media mixing, andthe like. A predictive model may be generated using any suitablealgorithm or heuristic.

The system 100 may additionally include a queuing system (e.g., aqueuing system similar to the queuing system 1360 of FIG. 13) whichfunctions to facilitate rate limiting and/or resource management. Thequeuing system can preferably queue requests of a defined scope. Aqueuing scope may include queuing across a platform, within a regionalsegment of the platform, across an account, across a sub-account, acrossrequests of a telephony endpoint, or across any suitable scope. In thevariation of queuing with a platform scope, requests from differentaccounts to use a micro-service may be initially queued until a resourceis available. The requests may be queued according to different entitylimits and policy. Requests of an account or sub-account may beassociated with a dequeuing rate and limit. A dequeuing limit preferablydefines a maximum frequency of a particular action with a particularmicro-service. A dequeuing limit preferably defines a hard limit on thenumber of particular actions within a time window. For example, anaccount may be limited to no more than three session initiations for agiven micro-service per minute and a limit of two hundred per day.Additionally or alternatively, the dequeuing of a request may bedependent at least in part on the resource usage and/or predicted impactof the request on the system. For example, with limited capacity, arequest to use micro-service for an audio session may be dequeued priorto a request to use TURN for a video session, wherein the video sessionis predicted to use more resource usage.

The queuing system preferably enables requests to be delayed until asuitable condition. In one variation, a queuing system can operatecooperatively with the resource management system. In demand input mode,queuing system information can be an input to the resource managementsystem in determining what and how many resources to allocate ordeallocate. In a management mode, the resource management system canalter the queuing mechanism.

The system 100 will additionally include subsystems to support variousprogrammatic mechanisms described herein such as APIs, event triggers,callbacks, and other suitable programmatic hooks that developers can usewhen building out applications or services.

The system 100 preferably includes an application programming interface(API) service 101 through which an authenticated account entity mayinteract with the system and/or obtain information from the system. TheAPI may be used in setting configuration of one or more micro-servicesfor an account. For example, an API request may be used to alter usagelimits and thresholds. As mentioned above, the API can set configurationrelated to use of additionally micro-services, callbacks, and otherinteraction options of a session can be controlled. In one variation,the API may enable programmatic control of active communication sessionssuch that a communication session may be augmented through anasynchronous API request. In one variation, a video chat may beterminated, paused, redirected or modified through the API.

The API service 101 is preferably a RESTful API but may alternatively beany suitable API such as SOAP or custom protocol. The RESTful API worksaccording to an application layer request and response model. Anapplication layer request and response model may use HTTP, HTTPS SPDY,or any suitable application layer protocol. Herein, HTTP may be used,but should not be interpreted as being limited to the HTTP protocol.HTTP requests (or any suitable request communication) to the platformpreferably observe the principles of a RESTful design. RESTful isunderstood in this document to describe a Representational StateTransfer architecture as is known in the art. The RESTful HTTP requestsare preferably stateless, thus each message communicated contains allnecessary information for processing the request and generating aresponse. The API service can include various resources, which act asendpoints that can act as a mechanism for specifying requestedinformation or requesting particular actions. The resources can beexpressed as URI's or resource paths. The RESTful API resources canadditionally be responsive to different types of HTTP methods such asGET, Put, POST and/or DELETE.

The system 100 can additionally include sub-systems to support eventtriggers and/or event callbacks (e.g., the event trigger system 180 ofFIG. 1). Event triggers can be account-customized conditions that resultin an event response when the condition is satisfied. The event triggerscan leverage internal information of the platform, but without exposingthe used internal information to an outside account entity. When anevent trigger condition is satisfied, a configured event is executed.The event could be an internal operation, a callback event, or anysuitable action. An Internal operation can be a closed action that maynot be fully exposed to an account holder such as ending all activecommunication sessions serviced by an MSCP instance. A callback eventpreferably includes making an application layer protocol communicationto an external resource. A callback event may alternatively beconfigured by account for any suitable event such as when a sessionstarts, when a session ends, when crossing a usage threshold, or anysuitable condition.

Method Overview

As shown in FIG. 2, a method 200 for providing a micro-servicescommunication platform can include enrolling an entity (S210),configuring micro-service usage of the entity (S210), processing amicro-service request according to the configured usage (S220); andaccounting for usage (S230). The method 200 functions to correlate usageof a micro-service to a user. Registering an entity (e.g., the processS210) preferably includes registering a developer account (i.e., anaccount), but may alternatively be associated with registering asubaccount, an application, a communication endpoint, and/or anysuitable entity. Configuring of a micro-service (e.g., the process S220)can include defining programmatic mechanisms that can: respond to use ofa micro-service, define how communication is managed by a micro-service,and/or play any suitable role in acting on a communication. In onevariation, registration of a managed endpoint may be used such thatvarious providers direct communication to the MSCP as the registeredmanager of that endpoint. For example, a PSTN phone number may beregistered with the MSCP, and various micro-services such as recording,routing, and other micro-service primitives can be configured. Inanother variation, an outside application or service will directcommunications (e.g., media and/or signaling to particular resources ofthe MSCP). For example, a mobile application may configure anapplication to direct SIP traffic to a particular domain of the MSCP,which can then handle at least a portion of SIP negotiation of acommunication.

Processing a micro-service request (e.g., the process S230) can includea variety of operations and may be dependent on the type (and variety)of micro-service used. Processing a micro-service request servicefunctions to execute policy on usage of one or more micro-services inaccordance with entity configuration (e.g., account or sub-accountconfiguration). Multiple micro-services may be used during acommunication. This may be directed through entity configuration. Forexample, various configuration mechanisms may be exposed to enablesimple coupling of different micro-services. Alternatively, a singlecommunication session can leverage multiple micro-services but can do soaccording to logic of the outside application. For example, acommunication application may use an identity service, a STUN/TURNservice, and a transcoding service, but from the perspective of the MSCPthe use of multiple micro-services is treated as independent uses of themicro-services. The micro-services are preferably highly composable suchthat they can be used in a variety of combinations to accomplish a giventask.

Additionally, use of the micro-services can be dynamic and can includetransitioning use of a micro-service. Transitioning use of amicro-service functions to alter the type, configuration, communicationorchestration and/or any suitable aspect of the micro-service resourcesused to facilitate a communication. A communication session can beestablished outside of the MSCP and then transition to using amicro-service. Additionally, a communication session utilizing amicro-service can transition to remove the micro-service resources fromthe communication session (e.g., due to ending that leg of thecommunication or just moving the communication off the MSCP). As shownin FIGS. 3A and 3B, a communication session may alternatively transitionfrom a first configuration to a second configuration. Transitioning ispreferably performed in response to a change in the requirements andcontext of a communication.

Use of a micro-service is preferably an accountable action (e.g.,accounted for during the process S240). Such accounting may be used inbilling or crediting an entity/account for such usage, which functionsto allow a sustainable MSCP to be operated. In another variation, usageaccountability can be used in limiting and balancing usage of aparticular entity. As the MSCP is preferably multitenant, usage ispreferably balanced across multiple entities. Rate limiting and actionlimits may be imposed at various times. Additionally, as use of acommunication infrastructure is often accompanied with significantfinancial cost, fraudulent behavior by accounts or users of an accountcan be harmful to users of the MSCP and to the MSCP itself. Frauddetection can additionally be accounted for during usage of the MSCP.

The method and system of a preferred embodiment preferably includes aset of CPaaS features driven by the multitenant approach of the systemand method. The method and system can includes a set of CPaaS features,which can include an account component, a metering and monitoringcomponent, security component, programmatic mechanism component, andquality and geographical routing component. The method and system can beapplied across a set of media micro-services as shown in FIG. 12. In onevariation, the method and system is applied to a single mediamicro-service, wherein the platform offers a single communicationprimitive such as network discovery, media mixing, or identity. Inanother variation, the set of media micro-services includes two or moremicro-services. In the variation where the set of media micro-servicesincludes multiple micro-services, the media micro-services can be usedin different combinations.

2. COMMUNICATION PRIMITIVE FEATURES

Account Component

As a first component of multitenant CPaaS features, the MSCP includes anaccount system (e.g., 130) where accounts can be created and managed.Various aspects of an account and usage of the MSCP can be configuredthrough account management interfaces. An account may be managed throughan account portal user interface. An account may alternatively bemanaged through API requests or through any suitable mechanism. Aspectsof an account that can be managed include configuring programmaticmechanisms and settings when using the MSCP. For example, an accountmanager could set various callback URIs that are triggered during errorsor other events in the system. The account manager can further definevarious parameters that will determine how a communication is routed.

Providing an account component includes enrolling an entity in theplatform (e.g., process S210 of FIG. 2), which functions to configure anaccount or application for use of the platform. Herein, an account willbe used in describing the entity, but an account may be a sub-account,an application, an endpoint, or any suitable entity. Enrolling an entity(e.g., the process S210) can include registering the entity and settingan entity configuration as shown in FIG. 11.

Registering an entity preferably includes registering a developeraccount (i.e., an account), but may alternatively be associated withregistering a subaccount, an application, a communication endpoint,and/or any suitable entity. In a first variation, a new account iscreated and setup. In a second variation, a sub-account of an existingaccount is created and setup. Enrolling an entity in the platform canadditionally include editing or updating an existing entity. Registeringan entity can include assigning authentication credentials for theentity. In one variation, the authentication credentials include anentity secure identifier token and an authentication token. Theauthentication credentials are preferably used by an entity whentransmitting a request, and the credentials provide a mechanism formapping the request to an entity. Entity configuration can be used insubsequent processing of the request. The authentication credentials canadditionally be used in interacting with the platform over the API. Anentity may be registered through interactions over a graphical userinterface, such as on a website or inside of a client application. Anentity can alternatively be registered using an API.

Setting entity configuration functions to configure the customized rulesaround usage of a given session instance of an entity.

Setting entity configuration can includes setting permissions,capabilities, pricing, capacity, performance, or other aspects. Theconfiguration may be expressed as platform policy, rules, parameters, orsettings. Configuration settings may be driven from the MSCP but some orall of the policy settings may be driven by an account. The entityconfigurations are preferably applied to each instances of use. Forexample, the configuration is preferably applied for each communicationsession of an account. A communication session is preferably an openmedia communication channel wherein substantially real-timecommunication occurs, such as a voice call, video call, screen sharing,data-transfers, and the like. As different entities will have varyingrequirements, each entity can set at least one set of options. In onevariation, multiple instance types may be configured which may beselectively used by an entity. For example, an entity may have a firstset of configuration for free users of the entity's application and asecond set of configuration for paid users of the entity's application.Entity configuration can be for one or more micro-services. In someinstances, the configuration defines combined use of micro-services(where two or more micro-services are used in combination). In otherinstances, the configuration can define independent settings ofmicro-services (one account may use a first micro-service independentfrom a second micro-service).

Configuring a network discovery instance may include setting defaultconfiguration. In one variation, an account is automatically allowedaccess micro-service. That micro-service may be configured automaticallyby the platform. Different entities may receive different defaultconfigurations. In another variation, an account may need to explicitlyenable the capability of a one or more micro-services such as byenrolling in the service offering through an administrator controlpanel.

Configuring a micro-services of an entity (e.g., the process S220 ofFIG. 2) can include defining a programmatic mechanism that can includesetting event callbacks, setting event triggers based on platformmetrics, secondary micro-media service configuration, set usage limits,and/or setting any suitable additional functionality of the networkdiscovery service.

In some variations, a micro-service can use endpoint addressing.Enrolling of an entity can additionally include allocating an endpointto the endpoint. An endpoint is preferably an identifier within anamespace. Endpoints can provide mapping information between acommunication destination or origin and a physical device. An endpointpreferably has a defined syntax. In one variation, the syntax can be aSIP address, but may alternatively be a username or any suitableidentifier. Accounts, sub-accounts, and/or any suitable entity may beallocated endpoints. The endpoint may be global such that cross accountand/or platform communication may be established. Alternatively,endpoints may be a scoped to an account or sub-account. Entities canregister, acquire, or otherwise obtain a n endpoint. Endpoints mayalternatively be transferred, removed, or otherwise disassociated froman account.

Subaccounts

One particular aspect of the MSCP is that the properties of multitenancycan be offered as recursive or nested multitenancy features. An accountis able to offer similar forms of multitenancy to its respectivecustomers or users, which functions to allow accounts on the MSCP tobuild their own multitenant platform on top of the MSCP. Moresspecifically, an account entity can have subaccounts. Subaccounts arehierarchically ordered account relationships that are under anotheraccount entity. There can be any suitable number of subaccount layers.

Security, fraud, policy, usage restrictions, billing/pricing, and otheraccount-scoped controls can additionally be scoped to particularsubaccounts. In some cases, those scoped controls are set and managed bythe MSCP. For example, automatic fraud detection can be detected on thescope of subaccounts (and in the scope of parent accounts). So if, forexample, a subaccount within a parent account is performing actions thatlook like illicit usage of the MSCP, then that subaccount can beblocked, turned off, or limited. The parent account and othersubaccounts can continue operating as normal. Such subaccount limitingwithin the multitenant MSCP. If fraud is detected scoped to the parentaccount, that parent account and all subaccounts may be acted upon toprevent illicit behavior. For some aspects, the scoped controls can be,at least partially, set or managed by a parent account. Examples ofaccount set scoped controls may include: special billing for asubaccount; limited feature access; usage limits; and other suitablescoped controls.

Queuing

As shown in FIG. 4, multitenancy in the MSCP can include the usage ofmicro-service queues (e.g., the micro-service queue 410), whichfunctions to throttle, balance, and manage resource usage within theMSCP. In some implementations, the MSCP is provided by the system 100 ofFIG. 1. A micro-service queue is a queue that acts as a gateway to theusage of a corresponding micro-service. The micro-service queue ispreferably a list of resource requests that have not been serviced orhave not been assigned necessary resources. Herein request is used todescribe the queued element—a queued request may be reasonably be anysuitable reference to an action or entity or communication. For example,a request to process a particular media stream may be queued. Therequests are preferably serviced at a rate suitable for the currentcapacity of the micro-services in the MSCP. Queuing is used to share theresources across a distinct set of accounts in the multitenantenvironment of the MSCP. Queuing can additionally be used in managingthe requests of a single account so as to not saturate themicro-services of the MSCP.

The micro-service queues can be used in several different modes. In onevariation, a micro-service queue can be used in establishing a mediasession. For example, asynchronous communication requests (e.g., APIrequests, directives initiated from application logic, etc.) may bequeued and dequeued when one or more micro-services are available foruse. The queuing may be to limit or gate access to limited resources.Resources can be automatically and dynamically scaled or redistributedto satisfy resource demand. A micro-service queue can facilitatecontrolled servicing of requests by micro-services. Additionally oralternatively, the micro-service queues may be used in account limiting.Account limiting may be used to throttle resource usage. As analternative to account limiting, the queues may be for a particularendpoint. For example, outgoing communication requests can be queuedaccording to origin SIP address wherein each SIP address is dequeued atan individually determined rate. A throttle is preferably a definedlimit or condition on the inter-request limit. Throttling preferablychanges the resource usage rate. For example, an account throttle limitcan prevent an account from making more than one outbound call perminute. The account throttles may be globally set but may alternativelybe individually set for a subset of accounts (e.g., per account limits).Similarly, a cap limit may be a restriction on gross count of requestsin a block of time, which may be considered a special case of a throttlelimit where the time scale is large. For example, an account cap limitcan limit the total number of requests served for a particular accountin a day. The cap limit may be used in combination with the throttlelimit—the rate and total number of requests could be limited.

The MSCP can include a variety of queue configurations. The MSCP caninclude per account (or subaccount) queues, where requests of aparticular account are queued. There can be group queues that are usedfor multiple queues. The group queues can be used as control queues. Inone variation, account queues will act as a first threshold of queuingand then a group control queue can act as a second stage where requestsare organized in the queue according to cross-account resource sharing.The queuing order within a group queue may be dependent on the accountor different conditions. For example, a premium account may beprioritized in queue ordering over a standard account. Similarly, thedequeuing rate of an account rate may function to similarly apply queueprioritization. Queues may be for a pool of resource or for individualresource queues. Resource queues can queue multiple requests of multipleaccounts for a particular resource.

A queue popper (i.e., a dequeuer) (e.g., 421, 422, 423 of FIG. 4) ispreferably a software or hardware mechanism that functions to selectqueued requests to service. The queue popper preferably selects requestsat a preferred rate, but the queue popper may alternatively selectrequests according to capacity or available resources, or a combinationthereof. There may additionally be a plurality of queue poppers thatfunction to simultaneously select requests from a queue. The number ofcall poppers may be variable. The micro-service queue(s), the queuepopper(s), or any suitable combination are preferably used to controlthe throttling (or servicing rate) of the call requests. The throttlingmay be performed on a per-phone number, per-endpoint, per-account,per-resource group, per resource, and/or according to any requestattribute.

The multitenant portion of the MSCP can include an analysis system 430,which functions to analyze the system to predict micro-service resourcerequirements. The analysis system preferably monitors a plurality ofaspects of the system. The analysis system may monitor the currentcapacity such as network or hardware operation levels or trends(increasing or decreasing); usage history such as logged data to findcorrelations in capacity (e.g., detecting patterns); queue length andqueue entry latency; analysis of applications such as historicalpatterns from past usage of an application; and/or any suitable aspects.Patterns in capacity needs are preferably found related to the time ofday, day of the week, yearly patterns, usage patterns (such as if anincrease in capacity needs by one user indicates increase in capacityneeds by other users), call location, call duration of calls, and/or anysuitable indicator. The analysis system can preferably makesdistinctions across different types and varieties of micro-services. Theanalysis system preferably generates data for the resource allocator, aload balancer, and/or additionally the micro-service queue. Thepredictions or data from the analysis system may additionally be usedfor provisioning capacity of the micro-service resources. The analysissystem preferably compares expected and actual load, and provides datathat is used to compensate for the variability in utilization ofresources of the system.

The multitenant portion of the MSCP can include a resource allocator440, which functions to scale and manage the operation of thedistributed computing resources of the MSCP. The resource allocatoradditionally preferably reprovisions micro-service resources, allocatesnew micro-service resources, deallocates micro-service resources, and/orany other suitable allocation process. The resource allocator mayadditionally control the provisioning of micro-service queues and otherdevices of the system. The resource allocator preferably uses data ofthe analysis system in determining the provisioning and operation ofresources. The resource allocator preferably uses information from theanalysis system to predict required micro-service resource capacity. Theresource allocator preferably uses the predicted capacity requirementsto determine how many hardware (physical or virtualized) or softwareresources need to be operating, and the resource allocator preferablyallocates, deallocates, or reprovisions micro-service resources (e.g.,transcoders, STUN/TURN servers, media information processors, mediamixing, communication application controllers, and/or other hardware orsoftware resources) as necessary. The resource allocator mayadditionally use startup time, operation cost, or other parameters ofhardware and software resources when determining the number and ratio ofresources to have allocated at a particular time. The resource allocatoralso preferably keeps track of the quantity of resources currentlyavailable, and makes resource availability information available toother system components, including dequeuers, load balancers etc. Suchresource availability information is preferably used by other systemcomponents to adjust operation of the system components. The resourceallocator preferably monitors the resources and reprovisions resourcesin real time.

The multitenant portion of the MSCP can include a set of load balancers(e.g., the load balancer 450 of FIG. 4) that functions to distributeprocessing tasks amongst the micro-service resources and otherresources. The load balancer of the preferred embodiment preferablyoptimizes the distribution of processing tasks such that the pluralityof micro-services is operated at or near an optimal level. The loadbalancer preferably directs tasks (e.g., servicing of communicationsessions or resource requests) to appropriate micro-service resources asthe tasks are created. A task is preferably an operation in the MSCP,but may alternatively be a call request or call session.

As shown in FIG. 5, a method 500 for multitenancy in the MSCP caninclude queuing a first micro-service request (process S510), queuing asecond micro-service request (process S520), dequeuing the firstmicro-service request and servicing at a first micro-service resource(process S530) and dequeuing the second micro-service request andservicing the dequeued second micro-service request at the firstmicro-service resource (process S540). The method 500 preferably employsthe use of queues to facilitate shared use of micro-service resources.For example, a STUN/TURN server can be shared across multiple distinctentities through the multitenant queuing policy of the method. Asdescribed above, a variety of queuing architectures may be used tocontrol access to the resources of the MSCP. The queuing process ispreferably used for asynchronous operations of the MSCP. For example,asynchronous micro-services (transcription services, media informationprocessing, and other tasks) may be queued and dequeued within asuitable amount of time. Synchronous services such as micro-serviceresources that facilitate real-time communication may employ queues forthe initial request to access a micro-service. Synchronous services cansimilarly use a queuing process with a short queued-status window (i.e.,requests will be queued for a short amount of time). For example, aqueue configured to queue a request for no longer than 500 ms may beused for micro-service resources where 500 ms delays do not break use ofthe micro-service.

In a basic operation mode, the first micro-service request and thesecond micro-service request are dequeued at a dequeuing rate associatedwith the micro-service. For example, the dequeuing rate may be dependenton the capacity and availability of a micro-service. In anotheroperation mode, the first micro-service request is dequeued at a firstrate and the second micro-service request is dequeued at a second rate.The first and second rate may be individually assigned rates that may ormay not be the same. For example, the first request may be initiated fora first account and the second request for a second account. The firstaccount may have a dequeuing rate set at the first rate, and the secondaccount may have a dequeuing rate of the second rate. The dequeuing ratemay additionally be associated with origin endpoint, destinationendpoint, or combination of involved endpoints.

Metering of Usage

As another component of multitenant CPaaS includes metering of usage(e.g., the process S340 of FIG. 2). The metering of usage functions toprovide a mechanism through which accounting for account usage may bemaintained. Additionally, as the inner workings of the MSCP will atleast partially be private from outside inspection, metering can providevarious mechanisms to add programmatic hooks and/or platform providedmanagement. Metering of usage preferably adds a layer of metering to amicro-service such that corresponding account entities can be heldaccountable for corresponding usage.

Preferably, a micro-service resource will have an added metering layerthat collects and distributes usage information. A metering layer canlog events and create a record of when and how the set of micro-servicesservice are used and which account was associated with the usage. Eventscan be logged in relationship to client requests whatfeatures/micro-services were used and the amount of in-session usage. Inone variation, only one attribute may be metered for a particularmicro-service. In other variations, multiple attributes may be meteredfor a particular micro-service. For example, transcoding micro-servicemay meter the time of the transcoding process, the duration or quantityof transcoding process, and the account associated with the request. Themetric may be the number of events (e.g., number of network discoveryattempts), time of media streaming, data transfer of media streaming,and/or any suitable metric. Metering and accounting may depend on themodality of the communication stream. In an environment where the MSCPincludes different types of micro-services, a reporting component may beconfigured for a set of micro-service types. In an environment where theMSCP includes multiple varieties of one type of micro-service, ametering layer may be configured for each variety of the micro-service.

Metered usage may be accounted for progressively as new usage occurs.Alternatively, accounting may occur at periodic increments. In onevariation, usage of each account is aggregated and accounted for whenpreparing a monthly statement. Accounting can additionally includenotifying an entity and collecting payment or credit. Such billingprocedures can be automated by the platform. Additionally, the meteringand billing can account for state changes of a communication stream. Forexample, if a communication stream were to transition between audio andvideo, the respective different modalities of the communication streamcan be metered and accounted for differently.

In one variation, metering and accounting can additionally besub-divided over subsets of usage. Preferably, the usage and accountingare sub-divided by sub-accounts of a parent account. In this manner, anaccount can provide a service wherein at least part of the cost ofoperating the service is delegated to an end-user. Sub-accounts can beone mechanism used in managing sub-dividing usage and metering.Sub-dividing metering can additionally enable fraud detection, eventtriggering, and other functionality to be based on sub-divided usage.

As shown in FIG. 6, the MSCP system (e.g., the system 100) can include avariety of other components that operate on or otherwise use the datagenerated by the reporting components. In one variation, a billingengine (e.g., 150) uses the metered usage in generating billing reports.In another variation, an event trigger system (e.g., 180) can provide aprogrammatic mechanism to integrate with the inner workings of the MSCP.In yet another variation, a fraud detection service (e.g., 170) can usemetered usage as a signal used in fraud detection.

Billing Engine

A billing engine (e.g., 150 of FIG. 1) can function to manage and trackmicro-service and platform usage to appropriately charge a responsibleentity. The billing engine 150 preferably accounts for the metered usageof all the micro-services and/or other aspects of the MSCP. In a firstvariation, the billing engine 150 will account for all usage for aparticular account and submit a bill (or actively bill) to the account.The billed usage can similarly be accounted for subaccounts. In a secondvariation, the billing engine 150 can account for usage according to abilling profile. Different accounts may have different billing profiles.The metered usage is processed according to a specific billing profile.In the case where the billing profile defines pricing of usage for asingle account, a single bill may be generated for the amount owed tothe MSCP. In the case where the billing profile defines pricing of usagefor a subaccount within a parent account, the billing engine 150 mayhandle collection from subaccounts or end-users, distribution of funds(or crediting of funds) to the parent account, and distribution of fundsto the MSCP. For example, the MSCP may provide a base billing profile of$0.01/minute of micro-service usage. The billing profile set by anaccount for a subaccount may be $0.02/minute of micro-service usage. Ifa subaccount had 1000 minutes of usage, then $20 is collected from thesub-account, $10 of the $20 is credited to the parent account, and $10of the $20 is collected by the MSCP for the platform usage. The billingprofile may similarly be used to subsidize usage. In another example,the billing profile may be set by an account for a subaccount to$0.005/minute of micro-service usage. If a subaccount had 1000 minutesof usage, then $5 is collected from the sub-account (leaving $5 to besubsidized by the account to make up for the $0.01/minute rate of theMSCP), $5 is collected from the parent account (to account for usage bythis one subaccount). The MSCP in the end collects $10 in response tousage by the subaccount.

The billing engine 150 can track all micro-service operations (or atleast a set of accountable micro-service operations) according to setbilling policies agreed to by a customer in a usage model. This mayinclude tracking time of use, number of uses, or according to anysuitable subscription model. The billing engine 150 preferablyconsolidates all module fees for both the customers and the developers.It is envisioned that a customer may have multiple service agreementsand contracts for various micro-services. The bills for the variousmodules are preferably consolidated into a single, periodic bill createdand sent out by the billing engine. Similarly, it is envisioned that adeveloper may have a plurality of customers with varying agreements. Thepayments from the various customers are preferably consolidated into asingle, periodic payment. Account information and billing information ispreferably stored in any suitable database.

Operation of the MSCP can include metering use of a micro-service,functions to account for the different micro-service (e.g., the processS240 of FIG. 2). Metering use of a micro-service may include measuringtime, the count of number of events, measuring duration of usage,measuring the quantity of usage (e.g., bandwidth, data processed), orany suitable metric. Metering is preferably performed such that it canbe associated to usage scopes. For example, usage by an account can beassociated with the account, the account endpoint used, the subaccountof the account, or any suitable entity. In addition to metering use ofthe micro-service, operation of the MSCP can use accounting for usagewhich can be used in calculating related measures of usage for billing,usage limits, usage triggers or any suitable action.

Metering can additionally be distributed across multiple types ofmicro-services. In one variation, use of a micro-service can be a binaryattribute for a communication session. For example, a call that is 10minutes long may use a recording micro-service for 5 minutes and aconferencing micro-service for 8 minutes. If both of thesemicro-services are accounted for in a binary fashion then this call maybe billed as a 10 minute call that used recording and conferencing.Metering can alternatively be accounted for in a segmented fashion. Inthe example above, the call will be accounted for as a 10 minute callthat had 5 minutes of recording and 8 minutes of conferencing.

The first and second module usage of the telephony application for auser account is preferably individually metered. The independentmetering can preferably be achieved because use of the telephonyplatform during application control by each module is preferablyisolated and accountable. The telephony platform (e.g., a call router)can preferably track what module URI's are being used for applicationcontrol, and more preferably the dispatching engine or the policy enginepreferably tracks application control. In addition to meteringapplication control, actions outside of application control(asynchronous usage) may be monitored. For example, API calls made by amodule or other use of the telephony platform that do not relate to aninstance of application control may be included in the metered activity.Metering preferably includes maintaining usage statistics. The metricsused for metering preferably may include per “period use” (e.g.,unlimited usage for one month), amount of usage in a fixed period (e.g.,100 minutes of call time per month or 500 text messages in a month), ora usage limit (e.g., 500 text messages), or any suitable usage model.Alternatively, the metering may include noting that a module is in useduring a particular period. This may be used for a usage model withunlimited use in a time period. Preferably the comparison of time periodof unlimited use and the current time is used in verifying permissionfor the account to use a module. For example, if a usage model is set sothat the module may see unlimited use during month period, the meteringpreferably notes that the month is being used in a particular month, anda policy engine preferably verifies permission for an account to be usedthat month (e.g., check if the current date is included in the month ofunlimited use). This particular alternative may be further used duringthe configuration of telephony application. A particular module may notbe prevented from being configured within a telephony application untilthe current time period is paid for. The metric used to measure usage ofthe first module and the second module can preferably differ, such thatthe usage model of each module may be individually assigned.

Usage Triggers

The metering of the MSCP can operate according to a usage trigger system180 (of FIG. 1) that includes a summarizer, a usage trigger managementsystem, a trigger monitoring system, and a trigger action processor. Thesystem functions to create a simple interface for outside applicationsto deploy usage based events within the MSCP. An interface to the systempreferably enables a user/developer to generate a new usage trigger foran application or service platform that leverages the micro-services.During operation of the application platform, the system can update andmonitor the status of various event counters. The event counters arepreferably built according to the metering, logging, and reporting ofthe MSCP. Event counters are preferably form-abstracted views ofinternal metrics. When a particular counter satisfies a usage trigger,actions corresponding to the usage trigger can be performed. The systemcan preferably achieve improved efficiency and provide a wider range oftrigger options, compared to an event polling system from an outsidedeveloper, when the usage triggers are integrated into the operation ofthe application platform. Furthermore, the system can accommodate theapplication server of an account holder being separate from theapplication platform by at least one security layer. The system can beused for general usage and event tracking of internal processing of theapplication platform, but the system can similarly be used forasynchronous error and warning handling.

The summarizer can function as a service to process individual eventlogs and metered usage into counters on which a trigger may bedependent. As different use cases may depend on different counters, thecounters may be selectively engaged based on configuration. In someimplementations, not all possible metered usage or event is counted,only those with a configured trigger. A usage trigger management systemfunctions to store event triggers and configuration. Applications orusers can configure the event triggers in any suitable manner. An eventtrigger configuration characterizes how to monitor usage and the actionsto perform. A trigger monitoring system functions to monitor thecounters in the context of the set usage triggers. When a condition ofan event trigger is satisfied by a counter, the trigger action processorcan be prompted to carry out a corresponding response. A trigger actionprocessor of a preferred embodiment functions to initialize or performthe response of an activated usage trigger. In one variation, an actioncan be to make an application layer communication (HTML, SPDY, etc.)call to a callback URI hosted external to the MSCP. In anothervariation, the action can be internal action of the MSCP. For example, atrigger may suspend further activity of an account such that the usagetrigger can be used to prevent suspicious behavior. In one variation,the usage trigger system and method can be substantially similar to thesystems and methods described in U.S. application Ser. No. 14/054,464,filed 15 Oct. 2013, and U.S. application Ser. No. 14/489,387, filed 17Sep. 2014, which are both hereby incorporated in their entirety by thisreference.

Security

Another attribute of the micro-service offering of the MSCP can includesecurity, which can include account authentication, micro-serviceresource access allocation, and activity monitoring.

The account authentication preferably provides a mechanism for whichactivity on the account can be verified and authenticated. In onevariation, the authentication can be based on established account. Asmentioned above, accounts, subaccounts, applications associated withaccount entities, endpoints associated with account entities, and otherusage scopes within the MSCP can have policy applied to it by the MSCPor by a responsible entity (e.g., an account can set policy for asubaccount, application, or endpoint). In addition to registeredentities having authentication capabilities, ephemeral identities canhave authentication credentials. Ephemeral identities can enable users,applications, and services, which organically make use of amicro-service, to be assigned policy within the MSCP. Ephemeralidentities preferably have authentication credentials generated ondemand, and which will expire after a certain condition(s). Theexpiration condition can include a time to live time window, aparticular event, or some threshold of usage.

The micro-service resource access allocation functions to dedicate atleast a subset of resource access to at least a sub-set of entities. Theresource access allocation can be a set of media proxy servers withdefined access IP addresses and ports. Accounts can whitelist suchresources so that they can interface with resources of an outsideapplication. Similarly, an account can set a block of whitelistedresources that can connect to the MSCP on behalf of that account suchthat the MSCP will allow account usage for resources connected accordingto the whitelisted specifications.

The activity monitoring system (e.g., the fraud system 170) of the MSCPcan function to apply various fraud-based heuristics across theaccounts, subaccounts, endpoints, or applications. The activitymonitoring can use the metered usage described above in monitoring andmeasuring various fraud scores based on heuristics. In one variation,fraud-based activity monitoring can include enrolling a plurality ofaccounts in a telecommunications platform block (as described above), ata fraud scoring system, receiving usage data of a telephony platformcomponent (e.g., as a supplementary process to metering and monitoring),calculating a fraud score from the usage data block, detecting whenfraud scores of an account satisfy a fraud threshold block, and takingaction when a fraud score satisfies a fraud threshold block. The methodfunctions to enable heuristic based identification and prevention oftelephony fraud. In response to the fraud scores, the activitymonitoring system can alter operation of the account within thecommunication platform. Such a system is preferably capable ofmitigating fraudulent behavior made on top of the self sign-upcommunication platform. Furthermore, in the case where ephemeralidentities are allowed to generate usage, fraud monitoring andprevention can oversee activity across a wide variety of accounts andscenarios. In one scenario, the system can be applied to preventingillicit use within a single account. The system can additionally beextended to detect illicit use through cooperative use of multipleaccounts. Another aspect is that the multitenant account system mayinclude functionality for an account to create sub-accounts.Sub-accounts can be used so that a developer can develop a service ontop of the communication platform and provide that service to endcustomers. The system can enable fraudulent behavior within thesubaccount of an account to also be monitored for fraudulent behavior.

The method preferably uses a heuristic based approach using rulesdefined in a rule set of the fraud scoring system (e.g., 170). Rulesused in the method can preferably be crafted and maintained by fraudanalysts, which functions to enable analysts to use their unique insightinto fraud scenarios to automatically detect future scenarios using thefraud scoring system. The method additionally can automate the detectionand actions taken by fraud analysts for a system. The method mayadditionally include Bayesian learning, neural networks, reinforcementlearning, cluster analysis or any suitable machine learning oralgorithmic approaches to facilitate identifying illicit use cases.Preferably a combination of automatic fraud rule generation and fraudanalyst input is used in during the method of the fraud scoring system.The method is preferably capable of identifying a wide variety ofillicit use cases as defined in the rule set. When illicit use of thetelephony platform is matches a rule, the fraud scoring systempreferably acts to prevent that instance of illicit use from continuing.In one variation, the fraud-based monitoring system can be substantiallysimilar to the fraud detection system and method of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/253,316, filed 15 Apr. 2014, which is herebyincorporated in its entirety by this reference.

Programmatic Mechanisms

Another attribute of the micro-service offering of the MSCP can includea variety of programmatic mechanisms such as providing of an API (e.g.,101 of FIG. 1), mapping of micro-service usage to a programmaticmechanism, responsive execution of callback URI events, and executingretrievable application logic.

MSCP API

A MSCP API (e.g., 101 of FIG. 1) can be provided that provides a rangeof controlling actions of the MSCP and inspecting data of the MSCP.Preferably actions that can be performed through an account dashboardcan similarly be accomplished through an API. Outside applications orservices can preferably interact with the MSCP through the MSCP API byissuing requests from an outside application service. A MSCP API service(e.g., 101 of FIG. 1) receives and parses such requests and thentranslates the requests into a response. The response can includeretrieval of information and a reply with the information. The responsecan include execution of some action by the MSCP and then the result ofthe request returned in reply to the application server. The MSCPpreferably uses an architectural approach that architects the resources,and primitives of the MSCP as a set of API resources. For example, anaccount's API resource can be used in inspecting all accounts orcreating a new account. In addition to dealing with prior configurationof the MSCP, the MSCP API can allow real-time active inspection andinteraction during use of the MSCP. For example, an active communicationsession may be inspected and manipulated during the communicationsession through the API.

The MASCP API (e.g., 101) can be a REST API. The API is preferably aRESTful API but may alternatively be any suitable API such as SOAP orcustom protocol. The RESTful API works according to an application layerrequest and response model. An application layer request and responsemodel may use HTTP, HTTPS SPDY, or any suitable application layerprotocol. Herein HTTP may be used, but should be interpreted as beinglimited to the HTTP protocol. HTTP requests (or any suitable requestcommunication) to the communication platform preferably observe theprinciples of a RESTful design. RESTful is understood in this documentto describe a Representational State Transfer architecture as is knownin the art. The RESTful HTTP requests are preferably stateless, thuseach message communicated contains all necessary information forprocessing the request and generating a response. The API service caninclude various resources, which act as endpoints that can act as amechanism for specifying requested information or requesting particularactions. The resources can be expressed as URI's or resource paths. TheRESTful API resources can additionally be responsive to different typesof HTTP methods such as GET, Put, POST and/or DELETE. The media serviceAPI can be used to provide information about current state of mediasessions, events, media, or related data. The media service API canadditionally provide interactive control of one or more operation of amedia service.

Mappings to Programmatic Mechanisms

As shown in FIG. 7, mapping of micro-service usage to a programmaticmechanism functions to correlate particular events to programmaticmechanisms. In many cases, the mapping will map usage of a micro-servicewith a programmatic mechanism that will be used during use of thatmicro-service. As the MSCP will frequently handle inbound and outboundcommunications, the mapping can be between an endpoint and someapplication logic executed at a particular time. There can additionallybe multiple mappings. For example, micro-service usage for a firstendpoint may have an associated URI of a retrievable application logicto direct the use of the micro-service during the communication sessionand an associated callback URI that is triggered at the end of thecommunication.

Callbacks

As shown in FIG. 8, responsively executing a callback URI event is oneparticular type of programmatic mechanism that can function to provide amechanism for integrating with applications outside of the MSCP. Acallback URI is preferably a configured URI of a resource controlled (orat least selected) by a developer of the outside application or service.The callback URI can be used when delegating particular decisions to anoutside application server. Responsibly executing a callback URIpreferably includes detecting an event associated with the callback URIand transmitting a communication to the callback URI. The communicationto the callback URI preferably includes metadata related to the event.For example, the metadata can include information about thecommunication session (e.g., what endpoints are involved, the durationof the communication session, and context information relating to theevent. A callback URI preferably functions to allow outside applicationsto be notified of particular events. If an outside application serverdecides to take some action in response to the communication to thecallback URI, the API may be used. Alternatively, a response to thecommunication that was directed at the callback URI can specifydifferent actions. In one variation retrievable application logic can isreturned which can be used in executing retrievable application logic.In one variation, the callback URI can include variations of the systemand method described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/176,426,filed 10 Feb. 2014, which is hereby incorporated in its entirety by thisreference.

Retrievable Application Definition

As shown in FIG. 9, executing retrievable application logic functions toallow particular aspects of a micro-service to be directed in responseto a retrieved document specifying logic. Executing retrievableapplication logic preferably involves detecting occurrence of an eventthat is dependent on application logic (e.g., receiving an incomingcommunication, receiving a request to use a micro-service, etc.),mapping the event to a callback URI associated with application logic,communication with the callback URI, receiving application logic in aresponse from the callback URI, and executing the application logic. Thecommunication to the URI preferably embeds state relating to use of themicro-service. From the embedded state information, an outsideapplication can generate appropriate application logic. The applicationlogic is preferably returned in the form of a script written in ascripting language. The scripting language is preferably substantiallysequentially processed such that the instructions or executed in asequence defined by instruction order. Alternatively, any suitableorganization or specification of application logic may be used. In onevariation, the application logic is an application bundle with includedresources. The application logic preferably directs a set of actionsassociated with use of a micro-service. Some exemplary actions directedby application logic can include routing communications, controlling theformat of media transformation, setting trigger response actions before,during, or after use of a micro-service; specifying preferences ofmicro-service actions.

Quality and Regional Communication Routing

As shown in FIG. 10, an attribute of the MSCP can include the systemcomponents associated with regionally distributed resources. Themicro-service resources hosted in the distributed computing environmentmay additionally be distributed across various regional facilities. Theregionally distributed system preferably functions to provide thehighest quality path for communication between at least two endpoints inresponse to one or both of a selected media type and/or thelocation/configuration of the endpoints of the communications. As anexample, the preferred system can function to minimize network latencybetween different types of endpoints (mobile, PSTN, browser-basedtelephony, client mobile devices, client browsers) using different typesof media (voice, video, text, screen-sharing, multimedia) and disposedin different regions, countries, or continents.

The system is configured for managing communication throughout thesystem across different regional areas to improve communicationaccording to resources requirements of a communication. In operation,the preferred system can perform routing and latency minimization inresponse to one or more of: the features/capabilities of the endpoints;a media quality measurement (video and audio recording); codecavailability/compatibility; media resource availability; and/or anysuitable metric. During operation, the communication flow of the systemwill preferably shift between operations modes—a first mode comprisingcommunication flow between an endpoint of a local region to a remoteregion with more resources and a second mode comprising communicationflow within the local region. An exemplary benefit of the system is thatcomplex, stateful, or expensive micro-service resources may bemaintained in limited regions and other resources can be implementedglobally or regionally to support particular local regions. The limitedcommunication resources may be complex because they maintainconsiderable state information of the platform, and replicating thestate information regionally/globally would result in increasedcomplexity and cost. Communication platforms, which may be susceptibleto global/regional scaling issues due to the real-time nature ofsynchronous communication, can use the system to dynamically switchbetween communicating within a local region and communicating withresources of a remote region.

In a regionally distributed MSCP, there can be two or more regions. Thepreferred system functions to maintain functional communication when thefirst region and second region are spatially separated by a globallysignificant transmission distance. A globally significant distance inthis document may be understood to be a transmission distance greaterthan 2000 miles and more preferably greater than 5000 miles. Forexample, the first region may be on the West coast of the US and thesecond region may be on the East coast, separated by a geographicdistance greater than 2500 miles. In another example, the first regionmay be in the United States and the second region may be in Europe,separated by a distance greater than 3500 miles. The first region andthe second region are not limited to functioning with such distanceranges and may be separated by a distance less than 2000 miles orexceeding 5000 miles.

A method for managing communication in a distributed communicationnetwork of micro-services a preferred embodiment can include providing acommunication platform with resources in at least two regions;initializing a communication session with a connection to at least oneendpoint through a micro-service; associating the first endpoint with afirst region; determining a communication route topology; andestablishing the communication route topology. The method functions todynamically redirect communication traffic within communication platformfor signaling and media. The method is preferably employed in aregionally/globally distributed communication platform of micro-servicesthat works with communication susceptible to latency and/or qualityperformance issues. The method is preferably used within a communicationprocessing platform such as the telephony platform incorporated byreference above. The method may additionally or alternatively be usedwith video communication, client based audio communication (e.g., VoIP),screen-sharing applications, over-the-top (OTT) IP communications,and/or any suitable communication platform. As described above,replicating all components in different regions can be expensive andincrease complexity of a system. The method enables communication to bere-routed within different modes of routing topologies according torequirements and quality improvements for a particular communication.Generally, different regions will have different media processing and/orsignal control capabilities, and additionally, each communication mayfurther have different and changing media and/or signaling resourcerequirements. The method preferably provides capability to route mediaaccording endpoint regional association and resource capabilityrequirements of the communication session. More preferably the media andsignaling are both routed, and routed independently. In one variation,the regional distributed communication network system and method can besubstantially similar to the systems and methods described in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/176,458, filed 10 Feb. 2014 and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/278,952, filed 15 May 2014, which arehereby incorporated in their entirety by this reference.

3. MICRO-SERVICES

As mentioned, the MSCP can include one or many micro-services. Themicro-services may be substantially homogeneous or one type ofmicro-service can include more than one variation. A micro-servicepreferably addresses a particular set of functionality that can beserved in an isolated fashion. Exemplary micro-services can include anidentity/presence service, a network discovery service (e.g., STUN/TURNservice), a media transcoding service, conferencing/mixing service,interactive voice response services, input detection service (e.g., DTMFdetection services), media intelligence services (text to speechservice, speech recognition, sentiment detection, answering machinedetection service), and other suitable micro-services.

An identity/presence service may function to provide a service to manageidentifying/selecting devices of specified identities, authenticating,identities, setting of permissions, setting of policy, and/or providingany suitable identity or presence information.

The network discovery service can provide a set of resources tofacilitate negotiating establishing communication between at least twoendpoints regardless of their networking environment such as beingbehind a NAT.

A media transcoding service functions to convert between formats. Thetranscoding may convert an active media stream to another format. Forexample, a call with two endpoints may natively use two differentcodecs. The transcoding service may convert one or two of the legs ofthe communication to a common or compatible media stream format.Additionally, the transcoding service may work to convert accessed mediaresources that are or will be used in a communication session. Forexample, an MP3 file accessed from a URI may be converted to a wave filefor playback during a phone call. In another example, a web client mayuse an OPUS codec while a mobile app may use Speex codec. Thetranscoding service preferably accepts a media stream in a first formatand outputs a media stream in a second format. Transcoding canadditionally alter bitrate, media size or resolution, or alter anysuitable aspect. Media transcoding services may additionally oralternatively provide other media transformative operations such asimage, audio, or video filtering.

A recording service preferably enables recording of calls orcommunication sessions. Recording is preferably for audio recording, butmay additionally or alternatively include video recording,screen-sharing recording, multimedia recording, or any suitablerecording service. The recording service may have additional featuresthat may or may not be integrated into the recording service of thelocal service. Transcription is one preferred feature of the recordingservice. Transcription may use algorithmic speech recognitiontechniques, automated manual transcription, semi-automated techniques,and/or any suitable approach.

A Text-to speech service preferably generates, plays, and/or convertstext into audible speech. The audible speech is then played within acommunication stream. For example, a phone call may connect to atelephony application that specifies a script that should be read to thecaller. The script is preferably directed to the TIS service to beplayed during the phone call. The text-to-speech services are preferablyfor audio communication. However, a computer generated video simulationor rendering of a speaker may additionally be created for videocommunication. The text-to-speech service preferably takes text as aninput and outputs an audio stream that can be played or mixed in withthe communication session

A speech recognition service is preferably a service used in collectingspoken input and converting it into a format for transcription, naturallanguage processing, or interpretation of responses. The speechrecognition may use the transcription component described above, but mayalternatively use an alternative approach. The input to the speechrecognition is preferably an audio stream and parameters of speechrecognition.

An input detection service functions to gather inputs of a communicationdevice. Preferably the input detection service collects DTMF inputs froma user. In the DTMF input detection variation, an audio stream andparameters of detection are preferably an input to the service. Thecomponents of an answering machine detection service may alternativelybe integrated into the input detection service or any suitable service.

Conferencing services preferably facilitate calls with more than twoendpoints connected. Various features of conference calls may be enabledthrough components of conferencing services. The conferencing servicepreferably mixes audio for audio and/or video sessions.

In one variation, an application layer communication service can be usedin combination with the micro-services. An application layercommunication services preferably enables a sequence of communicationinstructions to be retrieved over an application layer protocol andexecuted in association to a communication session. The applicationlayer communication service preferably provides a set of applicationlevel communication primitives wherein more of the communicationnegotiation and processing is handled by the platform. Exemplaryprimitives can include instructions such as “Say” (to convert text toaudio/video media), “Play” (to play a media file), “Gather” (to collectinput), “Record”, “Message”, “Dial”, “Enqueue”, “Hangup”, and the like.The application layer communication system and methods are preferablysubstantially similar to the systems and methods described in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/459,615, filed 15 Aug. 2014, which ishereby incorporated in its entirety by this reference. Similarly, the acall-center system can be an additional sub-system of the platformwherein high level call-center directed primitives such as “Agent”,“Options”, “Fill Form”, “Announce”, and other suitable primitives. Thecall-center primitives preferably have significant application logicpre-configured to enable rick call-center directed solutions. As shownin FIG. 23, the micro-services, application layer service, and acall-center service can form a multi-layered communication stack. Acommunication service may be able to integrated with one ore moreprimitives along different layers of the communication stack. In onevariation, a communication session can transition between layers. Inanother variation, a communication session can simultaneously usemultiple layers during a communication session.

4. SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING A NETWORK DISCOVERY SERVICE PLATFORM

As shown in FIG. 13, a system 1300 for providing a network discoveryservice (e.g., STUN/TURN service) platform of a preferred embodiment caninclude a STUN/TURN micro-service (STMS) (e.g., an STMS that providesSTMS instances 1321-1323) and a set of operational services. Theoperational services preferably include an account system 1330 and ametering and logging service 1340. The system 1300 functions to enable aplatform to offer network discovery and negotiating services to a set ofdiverse and distinct entities.

The network discovery service platform is preferably used to connect afirst device behind a NAT to a peer. Such network discovery tasks can beused in media or communication applications. The system 1300 providessuch functionality as a service such that an outside entity can leveragethe network discovery services of the platform rather than build,refine, and maintain a standalone STUN/TURN solution. An outsidedeveloper can employ the use of the network discovery service platformwhen building out a video communication service, a screen sharingservice, a real-time audio communication stream or any suitableapplication where a synchronous media stream is established between twoendpoints. Instead of building out a STUN/TURN service, a user canseamlessly leverage the existing micro-service of network discovery tonegotiate communicating with an endpoint behind a network addresstranslator (NAT).

Furthermore, use of the network discovery service platform can provideautomatic and flexible scalability to an end user. A user can start offusing the service for a small volume of users and then as the user'sapplication grows, the user's use of the system automatically follows.

By providing a micro communication service of STMS within acommunication platform system, other benefits in areas such as security,metering, logging, billing, programmatic integration, quality control,fraud and policy enforcement, multi-modal capabilities, and othersuitable aspects may be achieved.

The system 1300 is preferably multitenant; provides mechanisms formetering, logging, and billing; offers a set of security and monitoringfeatures built into operation of the platform; various programmatichooks to better integrate an outside application with the micro-serviceoffering of the system; distributed scalability and quality management;and/or other various aspects, which are described in more detail below.

The STUN/TURN micro-service (STMS) of a preferred embodiment functionsto provide network discovery services to outside entities attempting toestablish a network connection. The STMS is preferably a delegateservice that can be used by outside entities (e.g., applications andservices authenticated as registered account). In place of setting up aSTUN/TURN service to facilitate P2P communication for video/audio chat,screen sharing, or other synchronous forms of communications, anapplication can just be set to use the STUN/TURN service on demand. Anapplication does not have to pre-allocate or deploy a dedicated STMS,the system functions to allow the use of an STMS to scale appropriatelyto each user. As a micro-service, an application can use the STMS as astandalone communication service, while implementing any othercommunications operations within an internal or third party service. Inone variation, the STMS can be used in combination with a set of one ormore micro-services such as recording, transcoding, media intelligence,PSTN/SIP/other communication gateways, or other suitable micro-services.

The STMS is preferably a synchronous signaling and media service. In afirst operating mode, the STMS applies only a STUN service wherein theSTMS provides signaling through a STUN like solution. In a secondoperating mode, the STMS applies a TURN service to connect media of twoendpoints, wherein the STMS provides synchronous media services actingon the media stream. The TURN mode is preferably engaged when thenetwork topology and NAT types prevent the use of STUN. Alternatively,the TURN mode may be engaged when the configuration of the STMS isconfigured with capabilities that automatically trigger TURN for aparticular network discovery session. For example, media streamrecording may be enabled for a media session established with the STMS.

The STMS is preferably a set of media servers that run on machines,virtual machines, containers, or other computing environments inside adistributed computing infrastructure. The STMS is preferably hosted in aremote computing environment. The STMS can be instantiated as a servicewithin a host, a server, a machine, a virtual machine, or any suitablecomponent. A single host (or other suitable computing component) mayprovide only a single micro-service, but may additionally oralternatively provide a set of different micro-services. The mediaservice system may be hosted within a single computing cluster, but morepreferably is distributed across various clusters and/or operationalregions. In one variation, media service sub-systems can be deployed indifferent geographical regions to provide improved regional performance.

The STMS is preferably composed of a set of STMS instances (e.g.,1321-1323) that can be deployed throughout the computing environment ofthe platform. An STMS instance is preferably one instance of a serviceoperable on a host machine. Multiple instances can run on a host orserver. Depending on the computing resources of a host and configurationof an STMS instance on that host, a given STMS instance will have anapproximate capacity limit. For example, an STMS instance may have alimit on the number of concurrent network discovery sessions establishedthrough TURN. The various STMS instance can have individual operationallayers (e.g., 1311-1313) beyond business logic of network discovery. Theoperational layers can that provide additional functionality within theplatform such as account authentication, policy enforcement,supplementary media service integration, and the like. In one variation,an STMS instance can include a process manager 1311, an authenticationlayer 1312, a metering layer 1313, and a STUN/TURN engine 1314. Theprocess manager 1311 can function to execute policy for requests to theplatform. Any of the operational layers (e.g., 1311-1313) of an instancemay additionally or alternatively be implemented outside of an STMSsystem as centralized services or distributed services. Alternativelythe STMS can be a monolithic service, or a service partitioned anddistributed in any suitable manner.

The account system 130 of the preferred embodiment functions to maprequests of the STMS to an identity within the system. The system ispreferably a multitenant platform wherein multiple outside entities cancreate an account within the platform. An account preferably provides aset of credentials or an alternative authentication mechanism throughwhich requests can be validated. The account system preferablyauthenticates requests made by an account. In one variation, an accountidentifier and an authentication token must be included in a request,and these authentication credentials are validated by the account systembefore the request is fulfilled. An account may be authenticated whenmaking use of a REST API, when receiving signaling communication, duringuse of a user interface control panel or at any suitable instance.

Various aspects of an account and usage of the platform can beconfigured through account management interfaces. An account may bemanaged through an account portal user interface. An account mayalternatively be managed through API requests or through any suitablemechanism. Aspects of an account that can be managed include configuringprogrammatic mechanisms and settings when using the STMS. For example,an account manager could set various callback URIs that are triggeredduring errors or other events in the system. The account manager canfurther define various parameters that will determine how acommunication is routed.

As a related aspect, the system can include a policy engine 1331. Thepolicy engine may be a supplemental component or a sub-component of theaccount system. Policy can be set per account. Accordingly, differentaccounts can have different permissions, capabilities, pricing,capacity, performance, or other aspects, which can be set through anaccount policy. Policy may alternatively be set for a sub-account, forthe entire platform, for a geographic region, or for any suitablecontext. Policy settings may be set by default by the platform but someor all of the policy settings may be driven by an account.

An account can include a defined policy configuration. A policyconfiguration may set particular limitations for account usage withinthe platform. The policy can prevent an application of an outside entityincurring usage that is beyond the scope in which the application ismeant to be used. For example, a policy configuration may limit theduration of a communication session while facilitated with TURN.Similarly, the policy configuration may limit usage to machines with aparticular network address, types of devices, physical geographiclocation of a device, or other suitable properties.

The account system 130 can additionally include a sub-account mechanism,which functions to enable a user of the platform to partition accountusage to enable multitenancy within a product of the account holder. Thesub-account mechanism preferably accounts for usage, and morespecifically creditable/billable usage to be monitored according to anidentifier for a sub-set of usage by an account. For example, an accountholder may build an outside application platform that depends on thesystem. The outside application platform can similarly be multitenant inthat multiple users can have individually metered and accounted usage.The inheritable multitenancy property of the platform (i.e., thecapability of one account within a multitenant collection of accounts tofurther subdivide usage the account between subclass of accounts). Canpreferably provide the capabilities of a parent account to a subaccountincluding: billing; programmatic customization, allocation ofidentifiers or endpoints; and/or other customization. A billing enginecan cooperatively facilitate delivering billing statements andcollecting payments from the sub-accounts. Additionally, the sub-accountmechanism can establish a hierarchy of policy inheritance. A platformpreferably contains policies that are applied to account. In onevariation, a usage policy is based on the type of account such as freeaccount, basic account, or enterprise-account. A parent account cansimilarly at least partially define the policies of sub-accounts. In onevariation, an account will create sub-account resources.

The metering and logging system 1340 of the preferred embodimentfunctions to create a monitoring system to the STMS. The metering andlogging system operates in coordination with the provided STMS. In onevariation, the metering and logging system is integrated within an STMSinstance running on a machine as shown in FIG. 13. In another variation,the metering and logging system can externally monitor the actions ofthe STMS, wherein the actions of the STMS may be reported to themetering and logging system in any suitable manner. The metering andlogging function to create a record of notable activities. The meteringcan be used in providing programmatic hooks (e.g., callback URItriggering, application execution, and the like), billing/crediting anassociated entity (e.g., charging for services or controlling resourceaccess), creation of an audit trail, and/or other suitablefunctionality. In one variation, a STMS instance running on a hostincludes an instance layer that facilitates logging and tracking ofaccountable events as shown in FIGURE. Metering preferably includesrecording who (e.g., which account, sub-account, user, etc.) isassociated with the use of media micro-service and the quantity ofusage.

In one variation, the metering layer (e.g., 1311-1313) of an STMSinstance (e.g., 1321-1323) will record individual events such asinitialization requests, responses to a request, changes to afacilitated session, when a communication session ends, and/or anysuitable event. The metering layer may additionally measure the amountof data transfer, the time of communication sessions, and/or anysuitable usage metric while facilitating a particular communicationsession. The records are preferably metered and logged in connection toan associated account.

A billing engine 1350 may operate independently of the metering andlogging system 1340, but may alternatively be integrated. A billingengine 1350 preferably calculates amount owed by a particularaccount/sub-account. The billing engine 1350 can additionally facilitatecollecting and distributing of funds as appropriate. Such accounting maybe used in billing or crediting an entity/account for metered usage,which functions to allow a sustainable STMS to be operated. In anothervariation, usage accountability can be used in limiting and balancingusage of a particular entity. As the platform is preferably multitenant,usage is preferably balanced across multiple entities. Rate limiting andaction limits may be imposed at various times. Additionally, as use of acommunication infrastructure is often accompanied with significantfinancial cost, fraudulent behavior by accounts or users of an accountcan be harmful to users of the platform and to the platform itself.Fraud detection can additionally be accounted for during usage of theplatform.

The system 1300 may additionally include a resource management system1390 which functions to scale and orchestrate the computing resourcesthat support the STMS platform. The set of STMS instances (e.g.,1321-1323) are preferably scaled so as to support the usage requirementsacross a set of accounts. As a multi-tenant platform, the resources arepreferably shared across accounts. In other words, a STMS instance usedfor a first account at one time may be used by a second account at adifferent time. The variability of usage requirements for distinctaccount users is preferably normalized across a set of accounts withinthe platform, such that the platform is scaled to support the varyingusage demands of various account holders. The resource management systemcan preferably instantiate more STMS resources or other services,suspend resources, or terminate service instances. In one variation, ausage model is generated for at least a set of active accounts of theplatform. For the users that use the platform, or alternatively that usethe STMS platform above a particular threshold, a model may be generatedthat predicts their usage over time. In one instance, an account mayhave a substantially steady state of usage. In another instance, theamount of usage may be a function of time of day, week, month, or year.In another instance, an account may have varying trends that arepredicted in real-time based on past metrics and optionally metrics ofsimilar accounts. As one baseline heuristic for usage prediction, themedia type or application use case may be used to generate a usagemodel. For example, an account may select the type of STUN/TURN usageduring activation—selecting an option such as audio, video, screensharing, and the like. A predictive model may be generated using anysuitable algorithm or heuristic.

The system 1300 may additionally include a queuing system 1360 whichfunctions to facilitate rate limiting and/or resource management. Thequeuing system can preferably queue requests of a defined scope. Aqueuing scope may include queuing across a platform, within a regionalsegment of the platform, across an account, across a sub-account, acrossrequests of a telephony endpoint, or across any suitable scope. In thevariation of queuing with a platform scope, requests from differentaccounts to use the TURN portion of the STMS may be initially queueduntil a resource is available. The requests may be queued according todifferent entity limits and policy. Requests of an account orsub-account may be associated with a dequeuing rate and limit. Adequeuing limit preferably defines a maximum frequency of a particularaction with the STMS. A dequeuing limit preferably defines a hard limiton the number of particular actions within a time window. For example,an account may be limited to no more than three session initiations overTURN per minute and a limit of two hundred per day. Additionally oralternatively, the dequeuing of a request may be dependent at least inpart on the resource usage and/or predicted impact of the request on thesystem. With limited capacity, a request to use TURN for an audiosession may be dequeued prior to a request to use TURN for a videosession, wherein the video session is predicted to use more resourceusage.

The queuing system 1360 preferably enables requests to use the STMSfunctionality to be delayed until a suitable condition. In onevariation, a queuing system 1360 can operate cooperatively with theresource management system 1390. In demand input mode, queuing systeminformation can be an input to the resource management system 1390 indetermining what and how many resources to allocate or deallocate. In amanagement mode, the resource management system 1390 can alter thequeuing mechanism.

Additionally, the system 1300 can include additional media serviceintegration interface mechanisms (e.g., 1380), which function to enablesupplemental media services (e.g., 1381 and 1382) and functionality tobe added to use of the STMS. In a first instance, an account holder willonly make use of the STMS to complete the network discovery task of anoutside application—the account holder may not have the need ofadditional services. In another instance, a second account holder mayhave additional functionality that can be fulfilled by othermicro-services (e.g., 1381, 1382) of the platform.

The micro-services (e.g., 1381, 1382) may include micro-services thatinclude a transcoding service, a transcription service, a recordingservice, a mixing/conferencing service, a protocol gateway (e.g., PSTNgateway, etc.), a media-intelligence service, an application processingservice, and/or any suitable type of service offered as a mediaprocessing micro-service primitive.

A service integration interface mechanism 1380 can enable acommunication to be redirected to an additional micro-service foradditional processing as shown in FIG. 14. The integration interfacemechanism 1380 preferably includes at least one mechanism for directingthe use of one or more micro-service. As one variation, signaling may beable to selectively specify activation of one or more additionalmicro-services. For example, a signaling request to the STMS may includea data parameter that specifies the use of a transcoding mediamicro-service to be employed to the communication session. Analternative variation, an account or sub-account may pre-configure usageof a micro-service to employ one or more additional micro-services. Forexample, an administrator may set the STMS settings of an account torecord media. In another alternative variation, use of a micro-servicemay be directed in response to callback event in which the STMS callsout to an external application server to retrieve processinginstructions. The instructions retrieved through the callback may directthe use of one or more additional micro-services. In yet anothervariation, an additional micro-service may be activated in response toan asynchronously received API request. For example, in the middle ofserving a video chat session over the STMS, a REST API request may bereceived that references an identifier of that video chat session, anddirects a modification to the media routing to include one or more mediamicro-services.

An additional micro-service can be leveraged in several different modes.As one aspect, the micro-media service may be synchronous mediamicro-service or an asynchronous media micro-service. A synchronousmedia micro-service will operate in real-time on the media stream. Atemporary or record of the media service may not be made. Anasynchronous media micro-service preferably operates on the mediaoffline from the real-time communication. In one instance, atranscription media service may provide a transcription of acommunication session, but may provide that at a later time. (Asynchronous transcription media service may alternatively be offered).Additionally a media service may include mutable or immutableoperations. A media micro-service includes a mutable operating mode ifthe micro-service modifies or mutates the media. A transcoding mediamicro-service is a mutable micro-service. A media micro-service includesan immutable operating mode if the micro-service processes the mediawithout modifying the contents. Information extraction services such astranscription or media intelligence service can have immutable operatingmodes.

The system 1300 can additionally include a set of subsystems to supportvarious programmatic mechanisms described herein such as APIs, eventtriggers, callbacks, and other suitable programmatic hooks thatdevelopers can use when building out applications or services.

The system 1300 can additionally include an application programminginterface (API) service (e.g., 1383 of FIG. 13) through which anauthenticated account entity may interact with the system and/or obtaininformation from the system. The API (e.g., the API of the API service1383) may be used in setting configuration of STMS usage for an account.For example, an API request may be used to alter usage limits andthresholds. As mentioned above, the API can set configuration related touse of additional micro-services, callbacks, and other interactionoptions of a session can be controlled. In one variation, the API mayenable programmatic control of active communication sessions such that acommunication session may be augmented through an asynchronous APIrequest. In one variation, a video chat may be terminated, paused,redirected or modified through the API.

The API service (e.g., 1383) is preferably a RESTful API but mayalternatively be any suitable API such as SOAP or custom protocol. TheRESTful API works according to an application layer request and responsemodel. An application layer request and response model may use HTTP,HTTPS SPDY, or any suitable application layer protocol. Herein, HTTP maybe used, but should not be interpreted as being limited to the HTTPprotocol. HTTP requests (or any suitable request communication) to theplatform preferably observe the principles of a RESTful design. RESTfulis understood in this document to describe a Representational StateTransfer architecture as is known in the art. The RESTful HTTP requestsare preferably stateless, thus each message communicated contains allnecessary information for processing the request and generating aresponse. The API service can include various resources, which act asendpoints that can act as a mechanism for specifying requestedinformation or requesting particular actions. The resources can beexpressed as URI's or resource paths. The RESTful API resources canadditionally be responsive to different types of HTTP methods such asGET, Put, POST and/or DELETE.

The system 1300 can additionally include sub-systems to support eventtriggers and/or event callbacks (e.g., the event trigger system 1384 ofFIG. 13). Event triggers can be account-customized conditions thatresult in an event response when the condition is satisfied. The eventtriggers can leverage internal information of the platform, but withoutexposing the used internal information to an outside account entity.When an event trigger condition is satisfied, a configured event isexecuted. The event could be an internal operation, a callback event, orany suitable action. An Internal operation can be a closed action thatmay not be fully exposed to an account holder such as ending all activecommunication sessions serviced by an STMS instance. A callback eventpreferably includes making an application layer protocol communicationto an external resource. A callback event may alternatively beconfigured by account for any suitable event such as when a sessionstarts, when a session ends, when crossing a usage threshold, or anysuitable condition.

5. METHOD FOR OPERATING A NETWORK DISCOVERY SERVICE PLATFORM

As shown in FIG. 15, a method 1500 for operating a network discoveryservice platform of a preferred embodiment can include enrolling anentity (process S1510), configuring micro-service usage of the entity(process S1520), processing a micro-service request according to theconfigured usage (process S1530); and accounting for usage (processS1540). The method 1500 functions to correlate usage of a STUN/TURNmicro-service to an entity such as an account or subaccount. Appliedwithin the platform, multiple entities can achieve delegated, customizednetwork discovery on demand. Applied to a single entity instance, themethod 1600 can include enrolling an entity in the platform A110,initiating a network discovery session in response to a set of requestsA120, mapping the set of requests to the entity A130, monitoring usageof the network discovery session A140, applying service managementprocessing for the set of requests A150, and servicing a networkdiscovery session for the set of requests A160 as shown in FIG. 16. Sucha method is preferably performed across multiple entities in multipledistinct network discovery sessions, which may be at different times oroverlap as shown in FIG. 18.

The method (e.g., 1500, 1600) for operating a platform for a networkdiscovery service is preferably used to establish a media communicationsession between devices wherein at least one device is within a privatenetwork (e.g., not in the public internet). More specifically, themethod connects a first computing device behind a NAT to a peer,computing device, wherein the connection is facilitated by delegateservices hosted by the platform. An outside developer can employ the useof the network discovery service platform when building out a videocommunication service, a screen sharing service, a real-time audiocommunication stream or any suitable application where a synchronousmedia stream is established between two endpoints. The network discoveryservice is preferably a STUN/TURN service but may alternatively be anysuitable variation or alternative network topology negotiation service.Instead of building out a STUN/TURN service, an application of anaccount can seamlessly leverage the existing micro-service of networkdiscovery to negotiate communicating with an endpoint behind a networkaddress translator (NAT).

Use of the network discovery service platform may provide automatic andflexible scalability to an end user. Use of the network discoveryservice platform can be scalable wherein a user can start off using theservice for a small volume of users and then as the user's applicationgrows, the user's use of the network discovery service follows. Themethod can additionally include processes that provide security,metering, logging, billing, programmatic integration, quality control,fraud and policy enforcement, multi-modal capabilities, and othersuitable processes. The method is preferably implanted by a systemsubstantially similar to the one described above, but may alternativelybe implemented by any suitable system

Block A110, which includes enrolling an entity in the platform,functions to configure an account or application for use of theplatform. Herein, an account will be used in describing the entity, butan account may be a sub-account, an application, an endpoint, or anysuitable entity. Enrolling an entity can include registering the entityand setting an entity network discovery instance configuration as shownin FIG. 19.

Registering an entity preferably includes registering a developeraccount (i.e., an account), but may alternatively be associated withregistering a subaccount, an application, a communication endpoint,and/or any suitable entity. In a first variation, a new account iscreated and setup. In a second variation, a sub-account of an existingaccount is created and setup. Enrolling an entity in the platform canadditionally include editing or updating an existing entity. Registeringan entity can include assigning authentication credentials for theentity. In one variation, the authentication credentials include anentity secure identifier token and an authentication token. Theauthentication credentials can be supplied when receiving a request ofBlock A120 to provide a mechanism for mapping the request to entityaccounting and configuration in subsequent processing of the request.The authentication credentials can additionally be used in interactingwith the platform over the API. An entity may be registered throughinteractions over a graphical user interface, such as on a website orinside of a client application. An entity can alternatively beregistered using an API.

Configuring a network discovery instance of an entity sets thecustomized rules around usage of a given session instance of an entity.A network discovery instance is a particular instance of a networkdiscovery session established through the platform. For example, a videochat application may have one instances of a network discovery sessioneach time one user sets up a chat with a second user. A networkdiscovery session can include the signaling and communication inestablishing a communication session (e.g., a media stream). The networkdiscovery instance can additionally include the communication sessionwhen the media path passes through the platform (e.g., such as when TURNis used). A communication session is preferably an open mediacommunication channel wherein substantially real-time communicationoccurs, such as a voice call, video call, screen sharing,data-transfers, and the like. As different entities will have varyingrequirements, each entity can set at least one set of options. In onevariation, multiple instance types may be configured which may beselectively used by an entity. For example, an entity may have a firstnetwork discovery configuration for free users of the entity'sapplication and a second network discovery configuration for paid usersof the entity's application.

Configuring a network discovery instance may include setting defaultconfiguration for a given network discovery instance. In one variation,an account is automatically allowed access to a network discoveryservice. That network discovery service may be configured automaticallyby the platform. Different entities may receive different defaultconfigurations. In another variation, an account may need to explicitlyenable the capability of a network discovery service such as byenrolling in the service offering through an administrator controlpanel. Other aspects of the network discovery configuration may befurther configured by an account.

Configuring a network discovery instance can include defining aprogrammatic mechanisms that can include setting event callbacks,setting event triggers based on platform metrics, secondary micro-mediaservice configuration, set usage limits, and/or setting any suitableadditional functionality of the network discovery service.

Enrolling of an entity can additionally include allocating an endpointto the endpoint. An endpoint is preferably an identifier within anamespace. Endpoints can provide mapping information between acommunication destination or origin and a physical device. An endpointpreferably has a defined syntax. In one variation, the syntax can be aSIP address, but may alternatively be a username or any suitableidentifier. Accounts, sub-accounts, and/or any suitable entity may beallocated endpoints. The endpoint may be global such that cross accountand/or platform communication may be established. Alternatively,endpoints may be a scoped to an account or sub-account. Entities canregister, acquire, or otherwise obtain a n endpoint. Endpoints mayalternatively be transferred, removed, or otherwise disassociated froman account.

Block A120, which includes initiating a network discovery session inresponse to a set of requests, functions to start an instance of anetwork discovery session. In the case of a network discoverymicro-service, a session instance can begin upon receiving a request. Asshown in FIG. 17, a first device preferably directs a network discoveryrequest to an exposed endpoint of the platform. The request can betransmitted over an application layer protocol such as an HTTP-basedprotocol (e.g., HTTP and HTTPS), SPDY, or any suitable application layerprotocol. Alternatively, the request may be transmitted over a protocolof any suitable layer of the internet protocol suite or other networkinginterconnection protocol. The request is preferably authenticatedthrough an authentication service of the platform.

In some scenarios, the entity will be enabling user client devices toconnect with other devices. A user client device may be outside of thesecurity layer of the entity and the platform, and accordingly,credentials may be exposed. Account credentials and, in particular,private tokens of an account are preferably not supplied in anobservable form to a user client device. The method can includefacilitating ephemeral credentials. Ephemeral credentials can becredentials with limited usage conditions that act as temporary delegatecredentials of an entity (e.g., an account, sub-account). Anauthentication service can mint ephemeral credentials using a sharedsecret between the entity and the platform. The ephemeral credentialscan be supplied to exposed devices. For example, a video chatapplication may enable video chat to occur with anonymous usersaccessing a website on an internet browser. Sending credentials to thebrowser could enable introspection of the private credentials of theaccount. Preferably, ephemeral credentials are created and delivered tothe browser, and the browser uses generated ephemeral credentials inestablishing a media communication session with a peer. Ephemeralcredentials may have an expiration condition based, at least in part, ontime—ephemeral credentials may become invalid after a particular time.Ephemeral credentials may have expiration conditions based, at least inpart, on usage. Ephemeral credentials may only be used a set number oftimes (e.g., one time use). Alternatively or additionally, ephemeralcredentials may set limits of total communication session time, datausage, or other suitable usage metric. A communication sessionauthenticated with ephemeral credentials with a 30-minute limit willterminate after 30 minutes of communication time have occurred.Ephemeral credentials may additionally have functional limits such asbandwidth, geographic/regional restrictions, feature limits, and othersuitable limits.

The initiation of a network discovery session preferably includesdetermining if the session is allowed or rejected. If the request isauthenticated, the request is preferably fulfilled by the platform. Ifthe request is not authenticated, the request is denied and an errormessage or a suitable response is returned.

Block A130, which includes mapping the set of requests to the entity,which functions to establish an association between the initiatednetwork discovery session and an enrolled account. The network discoveryinstance configuration of an entity is then retrieved and applied to theservice management of the session. The enrolled account is preferablyheld accountable for the usage. In one alternative variation, theplatform may support some amount of unregistered usage, wherein theremay be no authentication and no associated account. In the case ofunregistered usage, at least some subset of platform usage involvesmapping to an entity.

Preferably, a single entity is mapped to the requests. Alternatively,multiple entities may be associated with the request. In one variation,the multiple entities may be a hierarchical structure of entities suchas a parent account and a subaccount. The network discovery instanceconfiguration of the multiple accounts may be applied in block A150according to permissions or prioritization. For example, someconfiguration parameters may not be overridden by a sub-account, whereassome configuration parameters can override those a parent account. Inthis example, the sub-account lacks permissions to a subset of theconfiguration parameters. In another variation, a different entity maybe associated with each request received at the platform. For example, afirst entity may be associated with a first request and a second entityassociated with a second request. Service management processing may beapplied independently for each entity. For example, if a first entityenables audio recording, the audio may be recorded for the first entity,but not offered to the second entity.

Block A140, which includes monitoring usage of the network discoverysession, functions to metering, account, and otherwise track usage of anentity and apply policy based on that usage. Preferably, the meteredusage is used in setting or regulating the bill of an account orcrediting an account. Network discovery and, in particular TURNfacilitated sessions, can result in resource usage for which an accountmay be held accountable. Preferably, a metering layer is integrated intoeach network discovery server instance that facilitates networkdiscovery. The metering layer can log events and create a record of whenand how the network discovery service was used and which account wasassociated with the usage. Events can be logged in relationship toclient requests (e.g., block A120), activated platform usage (e.g.,block A150), and for session usage (e.g., TURN-facilitated communicationsessions of block A160). Accounting may be based on one or more metric.The metric may be the number of events (e.g., number of networkdiscovery attempts), time of media streaming, data transfer of mediastreaming, and/or any suitable metric. Metering and accounting mayadditionally be set by modality of the communication stream. Audiostreaming requests may be metered and billed different from videostreaming requests. Accounting may occur progressively as new usageoccurs. Alternatively, accounting may occur at periodic increments. Inone variation, usage of each account is aggregated and accounted forwhen preparing a monthly statement. Accounting can additionally includenotifying an entity and collecting payment or credit. Such billingprocedures can be automated by the platform. Additionally, the meteringand billing can account for state changes of a communication stream. Forexample, if a communication stream were to transition between audio andvideo, the respective different modalities of the communication streamcan be metered and accounted for differently.

In one variation, metering and accounting can additionally besub-divided over subsets of usage. Preferably, the usage and accountingare sub-divided by sub-accounts of a parent account. In this manner, anaccount can provide a service wherein at least part of the cost ofoperating the service is delegated to an end-user. Sub-accounts can beone mechanism used in managing sub-dividing usage and metering.

For example, a video chat app may use the network discovery service tofacilitate running their video streams. The account may be heldresponsible for paying for all the usage accrued by the users of thevideo chat stream. A sub-account may be created for each end useraccount, and metering and accounting by sub-accounts can collect paymentfrom the end users, such that the cost of network discovery is offloadedfrom the account holder to the end users.

An account holder may additionally set different accounting or creditingconfiguration such that an account holder can monetize the usage by asub-account or subsidize and offset the cost for the sub-account. Inmonetizing the usage by a sub-account, a price is set for usage that isgreater than the platform price. The configured pricing is used incollecting payment from an end user. Then the fee based on the platformprice is collected from that payment, the difference is transferred tothe account holder. In one variation, the difference is transferred tothe account holder as a collected sum of multiple sub-accounts. Insubsidizing the usage of the sub-account, the account holder can pay forpart or all of the cost for a sub-account. The account holder canconfigure the pricing at a rate lower than the platform rate for aparticular sub-account. The configured rate is used for the sub-account.In this variation, a billing statement is sent to the sub-account forthe offset fee, and the account holder is sent a billing statement forthe difference between the platform pricing and the account subsidizedpricing. The billing statement sent to the account holder may be bundledas a single statement for a set of sub-accounts.

The metered usage can additionally be used in limiting account usage,detection of fraud/illicit behavior, triggering events, or any suitableaction in the platform as described below.

Block A150, which includes applying service management processing forthe set of requests, functions to execute policy over the networkdiscovery service in accordance with the network discovery serviceconfiguration. Applying service management can include platformmanagement and entity-driven management as set by customizedconfiguration. Applying service management can include executingsynchronous processes during a network discovery session or executing abackground/asynchronous process. The service management preferablyfunctions to add a layer of functionality that enables the networkdiscovery service to be offered to distinct entities. Applying servicemanagement can include limiting account usage of the network discoveryservice, managing requests and resources of the platform in response toaccount usage, detecting illicit use of the platform, and interfacingwith at least a second micro-media service.

Limiting account usage of the network discovery service functions tomonitor and restrict usage of the network discovery service. Limitingaccount usage can include event count limits, time of use, data transferusage, bandwidth (rate of data transfer) limits, feature limiting,and/or any suitable type of limits. In the STUN/TURN implementation ofnetwork discovery, network discovery can result in either networkdiscovery through a STUN negotiation, wherein the media communication isestablished outside of the platform, or through TURN, wherein the mediacommunication passes through the platform. STUN facilitated networkdiscovery is preferably not limited. However, the number of STUNnegotiations may alternatively be tracked and restricted. Similarly,time of day and additional conditions could limit when network discoverysessions are permitted. For example, a network discovery configurationmay restrict STUN negotiations (and preferably TURN negotiations too) toa particular time of day. A network discovery configuration cansimilarly limit bandwidth. For example, a particular account can belimited to using TURN services with a set bandwidth limit. Since TURNrequires channeling media through a TURN server during the duration of asession, at least one server uses some portion of computing resources tofacilitate the communication. In one variation, an entity will configurea network discovery instance with some level of permitted bandwidth. Inone variation, the level of bandwidth is set by media type such as audiostream, low-resolution video stream, or a high-resolution video stream.Set categories of stream resolutions can place appropriate limits on thebandwidth of a stream, and could limit an entity from streaming videowhen an audio configuration is set. Such limits may be set based onpricing. Limits may additionally be beneficial to an entity such thatthey can ensure usage from ephemeral user devices does not use thesystem in unintended manner. In one variation, a first tier of usagewould allow basic audio streaming and would have a first set of usagefees, a second tier of usage would allow video streaming and would havea second (typically more expensive usage fees). Such bandwidth limitsmay not be hard limits; the bandwidth limit may include burst or peakbandwidth limits or a normalized bandwidth limiting heuristic to allowfor some variability in the communication stream. Similar limits may beplaced on the time of usage. For example, an account may be allocated aset amount of minutes of communication streaming. Communication sessionsmay be prevented after that threshold or be treated differently in anysuitable manner.

Managing requests and resources of the platform in response to accountusage functions to transparently operate the platform to maintainreliability of the platform. Managing requests and resources of theplatform is preferably performed within the context of a servicing a setof distinct entities. The platform is preferably a multi-tenantplatform, wherein the resources of the platform are shared across a setof accounts. In one variation, dedicated, allocated resources areoperated for the sole use of a designated entity. More preferably,resources are shared and orchestrated to provide a normalized quality ofservice across multiple accounts. Managing requests and resources of theplatform can include queuing requests, dynamically allocating resources,and detecting illicit use of the platform.

Dynamically allocating resources functions to automatically scale theplatform. The platform is preferably scaled to sufficiently handle thedemand of the entities. The scaling of resources is preferablytransparent to the entities using the platform. Resources are preferablyallocated to satisfy higher network discovery demand. Resources mayalternatively be deallocated when platform capacity exceeds demand. Inone variation, a set of resources are maintained in a standby operationmode, and can be transitioned into active operation during high demand,and resources set to standby when inactive.

In one variation, usage of the platform is characterized and theresources are dynamically allocated in response to the currentcharacterization of resource utilization. Characterizing the platformpreferably includes characterizing a set of entities (e.g., accounts,subaccounts, endpoints, and the like). Characterizing entity usagepreferably scopes usage trends, which can enable better predictions ofresource capacity requirements.

Queuing requests functions to gate the fulfillment of network discoveryrequests as shown in FIG. 20. Queuing can ensure that the fluctuationsin demand can be addressed through limited resources. From theperspective of an entity, the platform may be configured to providesubstantially unlimited number of network discovery sessions. Suchunlimited access of resources is conditioned on policy that limits andgates the real-time fulfillment of those requests. An account may haveparticular request rate limit and potentially a request cap. The requestrate limit is a limit on the frequency with which a request may be met.A request cap may be a hard limit on the number of requests in giventime period. Any suitable limits may be set.

Requests can preferably be queued in different scopes. Requests may bequeued within account, across accounts, across sub-accounts, for aparticular instance configuration, across requests associated with aregion, or with any suitable scope. Within an account, requestsassociated with that account that cannot be immediately serviced areadded to a queue.

Individual items in the queue may be treated uniformly for a first infirst out heuristic. Alternatively, queued items may receiveprioritization such that dequeuing of an item is balanced against therelative priority of that item to other items. Item prioritization mayadditionally account for amount of time queued.

Across accounts, multiple accounts may be queued so servicing requestsis balanced across accounts. In one implementation a single queue isused to manage requests of a set of accounts. Alternatively, a set ofqueues for each account is used, and a queue popper will selectivelycycle through the account queues to select an request for servicing.There can additionally be multiple queue poppers such that multipleitems can be selected simultaneously. Dequeuing across a set of queuesmay use various fair dequeuing heuristics such as a round robinheuristic, weighted dequeuing heuristic, or any suitable rotationdequeuing heuristic.

In queuing network discovery requests, the requests may be queued atvarious stages. Preferably network discovery includes the two modes ofnetwork discovery of STUN and TURN. STUN is a non-resource intensivemode of network discovery wherein the communication stream is notfacilitated by a resource for the duration of the stream. Accordingly,establishing a communication stream through STUN may initially beattempted and if unsuccessful, then the request may be queued prior toattempting TURN.

Queuing may be cooperative with the dynamic allocation of resources. Inone variation, analytics are collected over the set of managed networkdiscovery queue and are used in calculating and predicting resourcerequirements, which are addressed by dynamically allocating resources.In an alternative variation, the dynamic allocation and usage demand onthe platform can alter the queuing behavior. Request dequeuing rates ofa queue can be reduced when sufficient resources are available, andsimilarly, the dequeuing rates may be increased when resources areconstrained. The queuing can provide a temporary solution whileresources are allocated. A target steady state dequeuing rate may be setas a target which balances the cost of running resources in standby andadequately servicing requests in a timely manner.

Detecting illicit use of the platform functions to provide frauddetection and anomaly prevention. Detecting illicit use can identifyevent patterns that have match an illicit behavior pattern. In onevariation, detecting illicit operations can include correlating actionsof two entities through shared profile information such as paymentinformation, billing address, machine addresses, or any suitableidentifiable information. In one example an illicit usage pattern caninclude detecting when multiple distinct accounts share the same creditcard for billing.

Upon detecting an illicit usage pattern, the associated subset of usagecan be limited. Limiting usage can include preventing futureinteractions, ending current sessions, throttling or reducing theservicing rate or the bandwidth, feature limitations (e.g., preventingrecording or transcoding or TURN network discovery) or taking any directaction towards minimizing the effects of the illicit usage.Alternatively, the illicit usage pattern can trigger notifying anassociated party. For example, initially, an account manager may receivean email alerting the account holder to the illicit usage pattern. Ifthe illicit behavior continues, the account can be suspended.

The illicit usage pattern can be associated with a subset of usagewithin a scope. In one variation, the illicit usage pattern can beassociated with usage by a sub-account of a parent account. Accordingly,the method can include associating the usage within the sub-account andnot with the whole account. In other words, other sub-accounts that arenot involved in the usage are not affected. In another variation,ephemeral credentials generated in connection with IP addresses in aparticular geographic region may be associated with the illicit usagepattern. Ephemeral credentials may be temporarily blocked or otherwiselimited for that geographic region.

Detecting illicit usage patterns can additionally include detectingabuse of the communication stream. For example, if a communicationstream is registered as audio but is used to transmit video then actionmay be taken.

Interfacing with at least a second micro-media service which functionsto integrate with other micro-services. A second micro-media service ispreferably a media service, but the second micro-media service mayadditionally be a signaling micro-service. Interfacing with a secondmicro-service enables additional functionality to be added whileproviding a network discovery service. A media-service can preferably beadded when the network discovery processes results to using TURN or analternative network discovery approach wherein at least one resource ofthe platform is an intermediary node in the media communication stream.The additional micro-services can include transcoding, recording, mediaintelligence, transcription, text-to-speech, or any suitable servicethat alters or uses the media. The media micro-services preferably acton the media by consuming media, augmenting/mutating media, processingmedia.

A media service can mutate the media stream wherein the media stream istransformed for one or both endpoints. For example, a transcoding mediaservice can translate the media between a codec of a first endpoint anda second codec of a second endpoint. Transcoding, mixing, filtering,changing media resolution or medium, or other mutable services may beused.

As an example, a transcoding media server may convert between variouscodecs such as Speex used in mobile operating system applications (e.g.,iOS and Android), Opus used in web and WebRTC applications, and PCMUused in PSTN and other media services. Any suitable codec or mediatransformation may alternatively be performed. A transcoding mediaservice can additionally translate between media mediums such asconverting a pure audio stream to a video stream or pulling the audiofrom a video into an audio stream.

A media service synchronously mutating the media stream can includerouting the media to an additional resource of the platform such as atranscoding server as shown in FIG. 21A. Alternatively, the networkdiscovery server instance can include a media service module that can beselectively activated as shown in FIG. 21B.

A media service can alternatively asynchronously mutate the mediastream. The media is preferably processed and a transformed mediarepresentation is outputted in a time frame out of sync with substantialreal-time communication. For example, asynchronous media mutation mayrequire five seconds or more of processing. A second leg of the mediastream is preferably delivered to the asynchronous media service, whichprocesses and stores a processed version as shown in FIG. 22.

A media service can act on the media stream as an immutable stream,wherein the media is observed but not transformed. Such a processingmedia service can include transcription, recording, media intelligence,and other media processing operations. The media may be stored forasynchronous processing wherein the processing is completedsubstantially not in real time with the communication session. The mediamay be alternatively synchronously processed to provide real-timeinformation. For example, a real-time transcription service may providespeech to text transcription. Multiple micro-services can be used incombination in building a communication application. Media intelligencecan be apply different audio or video processing to extract informationfrom the content. For example, speaker sentiment may be detected andlogged. Voice recognition or speaker recognition can additionally be amedia intelligence service. Video media may allow object detection andtracking may be another exemplary media intelligence service.

A second micro-service is preferably invoked in response to somedirective. The directive may be pre-set in the network discoveryinstance configuration. For example, an account holder may set allnetwork discovery sessions to also record the communication stream.Configuration directives provide a base default for a particular entity.In another variation, a micro-service can be invoked by including adirective in the request or other suitable signaling message. In thisvariation, an application can selectively invoke a micro-serviceasynchronously through an API request. The API request is preferablyreceived during a network discovery session and preferably supplies anidentifier of the network discovery session. That identifier may be aunique identifier such as a session identifier, but the identifier mayalternatively apply to multiple sessions such as an identifier of allsessions for a particular account, endpoint, or other suitableidentifier or identifiers.

Block A160, which includes servicing the network discovery session forthe set of requests, which functions to execute the process of networkdiscovery in accordance. The servicing of the network discovery sessionis preferably performed in accordance with platform and entityconfiguration and may be executed in coordination with the servicemanagement processing of block A150. Network discovery preferablyincludes the signaling negotiation to establish a communication stream,and more preferably a media communication stream, between at least twoentities. The network discovery process can use STUN/TURN approach, and,in one variation, the method will include selectively engaging STUN orTURN functionality.

A STUN service preferably flows from the request of Block A120. Therequest is preferably a binding request received from a client over anetwork connection (e.g., the public network). The network discoveryservice preferably detects and responds with a success response thatcontains as payload the IP address and port of the client as observedfrom the perspective of the server. The payload can be obfuscated toavoid IP address translation by a NAT. UDP can be used as a transportprotocol and used along side application-controlled retransmissions forreliability. The communication can additionally be transported in anencryption secured form such as TLS. Alternatively, communication can beof any suitable format. The client device can use the discovered publicIP and Port of a device in coordinating and communicating with anotherclient. The public address can be shared with additional peer clients toestablish a communication. In one variation, both clients may make useof the STUN service in discovering their respective public addresses,such as when both are behind a NAT. Other approaches to external addressdiscovery may alternatively be used such as Interactive ConnectivityEstablishment (ICE) approach. When STUN is sufficient for thecommunication path of a desired communication, the clients will use theexternal address information to establish a communication stream outsideof the platform such as through UDP hole punching.

A STUN service is preferably used in facilitating a service discoverywhen the service management processing does not necessitatecommunication session visibility. When session monitoring or sessioninteraction is specified in the instance configuration, then TURNoperations are engaged. However, when there is no direction forin-session interactions, then STUN peer-to-peer communicationnegotiation can be preliminarily attempted.

In some cases STUN-based negotiations are not suitable for the networkdiscovery session. In one variation, STUN-based negotiations cannotestablish a communication stream based on the networking topology andconditions. For example, STUN-based negotiations can prove insufficientif the NAT is a symmetric NAT. In another variation, the servicemanagement processing goals conflict with establishing a communicationstream fully external to a node of the platform (i.e., the media streamdoes not pass through the platform). A TURN-based negotiation can beused when a STUN-based negotiation is not used.

Traversal Using Relays around NAT (TURN) is a protocol that enablesclients behind a NAT or firewall to receive incoming data over TCP, UDPor other suitable connections. The TURN-based negotiations of the methodcan enable clients to receive data as well as send by utilizing anintermediary media routing proxy hosted in the platform. The TURNnegotiation preferably includes receiving a request from a client, suchas during A120. The request is preferably an Allocate request. Theplatform preferably allocates resources on behalf of the client forcontacting a peer. The amount of resources can be determined based onthe media type specified in the request, the restrictions orconfiguration of the account, or by other suitable policy directives.Resources can additionally be dynamically allocated according to thecharacterization of the requesting account/sub-account (e.g., based ontypical usage for a given application). An allocation request may bequeued as described above until sufficient resources are available. Ifallocation is allowed and successful, an “Allocation Successful”response is relayed to the client. The “Allocation Successful” responsehas a payload includes the transport address of the allocated resourcesof the TURN server. The transport address may alternatively be deliveredin any suitable message. The TURN negotiation process can then proceedin creating permissions with the TURN server resources. The peer clientcan be contacted; data is sent to the TURN server and permissions can beverified. Data can be sent with a send mechanism or a channel bindmechanism. Other suitable TURN-based operations can similarly beapplied. In one variation, the STUN and TURN negotiations can conform toSTUN and TURN protocols, and supplemental functionality and instancemanagement is transparently applied for a given account. Alternatively,deviations of the STUN/TURN protocols or alternative network discoveryprotocols can be used.

6. MULTI-TENANT MICRO-SERVICE MEDIA COMMUNICATION PLATFORM SYSTEM

FIG. 24A is a schematic representation of a multi-tenant mediacommunication platform system 2400 that includes one or more mediacommunication micro-services (e.g., 2421-2423). The system 2400 is amulti-tenant system that includes plural entities (e.g., entities of thesystems 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A). In some embodiments, entities includeone or more of accounts, sub-accounts, organizations, users and serviceinstances. In some implementations, each service instance includesplatform configuration of the platform system 2400 for an application ofan account (or sub-account) of the platform system 2400. For example, anaccount holder of a platform account can have multiple applications thatuse the platform system 2400, each application of the account holderhaving a separate service instance that includes platform configuration.In some embodiments, each entity is independently configurable, and thesystem 2400 manages configuration for each configured entity. In someembodiments, entity configuration at the system 2400 includesconfiguration for one or more micro-services of the system 2400. In someembodiments, entity configuration is received from an external system ofa corresponding entity via an account management interface (e.g., anaccount portal user interface, an account management API, and the like).In some implementations, entity configuration includes configuration asdescribed herein for FIGS. 1-23. In some implementations, entityconfiguration includes configuration as described herein for FIGS. 1, 2,13, 15 and 16. In some implementations, entity configuration is storedat the system 2400. In some implementations, entity configuration isstored at a remote data storage device that is external to the system2400.

In some embodiments, the system 2400 generates one or moremicro-services resources for a configured entity.

As depicted in FIG. 24A, the communication platform system 2400 includesmicro-services 2421-2423, operational services 2499, and a communicationplatform API system 2483.

Communication Platform System

In some embodiments, the system 2400 is a multi-tenant peer-to-peerreal-time media communication platform system. In some embodiments, thesystem 2400 is a multi-tenant peer-to-peer asynchronous mediacommunication platform system. In some embodiments, the system 2400 is amulti-tenant peer-to-peer synchronous media communication platformsystem. In some embodiments, the system 2400 is constructed to provideone or more media communication micro-services.

In some embodiments, each media communication micro-service (e.g.,2421-2423) provides at least one media process for a synchronous mediastream. In some embodiments, the synchronous media stream is asynchronous media stream between two synchronous media communicationendpoints. In some embodiments, the two synchronous media communicationendpoints communicate via a media communication channel that isestablished between the two endpoints. In some embodiments, thesynchronous media stream is a synchronous media stream that isbroadcasted to at least one synchronous media communication endpoint. Insome embodiments, a broadcasting media communication endpoint broadcaststhe synchronous media stream to each destination media communicationendpoint via at least one media communication channel that isestablished between the broadcasting endpoint and at least onedestination endpoint.

The micro-services 2421-2423 include one or more of signalingmicro-services (e.g., network discovery services, such as STUN/TURNservices) and media micro-services (e.g., a transcoding micro-service, arecording micro-service, a mixing micro-service, a conferencingmicro-service, a media intelligence micro-service, a text-to-speechmicro-service, a speech detection micro-service, a notificationmicro-service, a call-progress micro-service, and the like). In someimplementations, signaling micro-services of the platform system 2400are similar to the micro-services of the signaling and control system120 of FIG. 1. In some implementations, signaling micro-services of theplatform system 2400 are similar to the STUN/TURN micro-services (STMS)of FIG. 13. In some implementations, media micro-services of theplatform system 2400 are similar to the media micro-services of themedia service system 110 FIG. 1. In some implementations, mediamicro-services of the platform system 2400 are similar to the mediamicro-services 1381 and 1382 of FIG. 13.

In some embodiments, the operational services 2499 include a resourcemanagement system 2490, a Micro-Service (MS) interface 2480, an accountsystem 2430, a policy engine 2431, a metering and logging system 2440, afraud detection system 2470, a billing engine 2450, and an Event TriggerSystem 2484, as depicted in FIG. 24B.

In some implementations, the resource management system 2490, the MSinterface 2480, the account system 2430, the policy engine 2431, themetering and logging system 2440, the fraud detection system 2470, thebilling engine 2450, the communication platform API system 2483, and theEvent Trigger System 2484 are similar to the resource management system1390, the MS interface 1380, the account system 1330, the policy engine1331, the metering and logging system 1340, the fraud detection system1370, the billing engine 1350, the API service 1383, and the EventTrigger System 1384 (respectively) of FIG. 13. In some implementations,the system 2400 includes a queuing system similar to the queuing system1360 of FIG. 13.

In some implementations, one or more of the micro-services 2421-2423,are accessible by a system (e.g., Entity A system 2451, Entity B system2452, Entity C system 2453, Entity D system 2454, and Entity E system2455) that is external to the system 2400 and that is a system of anentity of the communication platform system 2400. In someimplementations, one or more of the micro-services 2421-2423, areaccessible by an external system of an entity via the API system 2483.In some implementations, one or more of the micro-services 2421-2423,are accessible by an external system of an entity via a micro-serviceAPI of the respective micro-service (e.g., micro-service A API 2491,micro-service B API 2492, micro-service C API 2493). In someimplementations, an external system of an entity accesses one or more ofthe micro-services 2421-2423 by providing at least one signaling requestto the system 2400 (e.g., via a signaling interface of the system 2400,a queuing system similar to the queuing system 1360 of FIG. 13, and thelike).

In some implementations, one or more of the micro-services 2421-2423 areaccessible by another micro-service of the system 2400. In someimplementations, one or more of the micro-services 2421-2423 areaccessible by another micro-service of the system 2400 via the MSinterface 2480. In some implementations, one or more of themicro-services 2421-2423 are accessible by another micro-service of thesystem 2400 via the API service 2483. In some implementations, one ormore of the micro-services 2421-2423 are accessible by anothermicro-service of the system 2400 via a respective micro service API(e.g., one of the APIs 2491-2493). In some implementations, one or moreof the micro-services 2421-2423 are accessible by another micro-serviceof the system 2400 via a signaling request.

In some implementations, the system 2400 is similar to the system 100 ofFIG. 1.

In some implementations, one or more of the micro-services 2421-2423include RESTful API resources (e.g., Entity A Resources, Entity BResources, Entity C Resources, Entity D Resources, and Entity EResources as depicted in FIG. 24A), which act as endpoints that can actas a mechanism for specifying requested information or requestingparticular actions. In some implementations, the resources are expressedas URI's or resource paths. In some implementations, the RESTful APIresources are responsive to different types of HTTP methods such as GET,Put, POST and/or DELETE. In some implementations, each micro service API(e.g., one of the APIs 2491-2493) is a RESTful API.

In some implementations, one or more of the micro-services 2421-2423include a process manager, an authentication layer, and a metering layersimilar to the process managers, the authentication layers, and themetering layers (e.g., 1311-1313) of FIG. 13.

7. MULTI-TENANT MICRO-SERVICE MEDIA COMMUNICATION METHOD

As shown in FIG. 26, the method 2600 is performed at a multi-tenantmedia communication platform system (e.g., the system 2400 of FIG. 24)that includes a plurality of media communication micro-services (e.g.,2421-2423 of FIG. 24A) and micro-service configuration for a pluralityof entities (e.g., the entities corresponding to the systems 2451-2455of FIG. 24A) configured for use of the platform system (e.g., 2400). Insome implementations, the micro-service configuration is managed byoperational services of the platform system (e.g., the operationalservices 2499 of FIG. 24A). In some implementations, the micro-serviceconfiguration is managed by an account system of the platform system(e.g., the account system 2430 of FIG. 24B). In some implementations,the micro-service configuration is managed by a policy engine of theplatform system (e.g., the policy engine 2431 of FIG. 24B). In someimplementations, the micro-service configuration is managed by arespective micro-service of the platform system (e.g., 2421-2423 FIG.24A).

The method 2600 includes: enrolling at least one entity in the platformsystem (process S2610); processing at least one micro-service requestaccording to entity configuration for the at least one entity, the atleast one micro-service request being a request for use of at least onemicro-service of the platform system on behalf of the at least oneentity (process S2620); accounting for use of the at least onemicro-service on behalf of the at least one entity (process S2630); andgenerating billing information for the at least one entity based on theaccounting for the use of the at least one micro-service on behalf ofthe at least one entity (process S2640).

Enrolling at least one entity in the platform system (the process S2610)includes setting entity configuration for use of the platform system2400 by an entity (e.g., an entity of 2451-2455). In someimplementations, entity configuration is managed by operational servicesof the platform system (e.g., the operational services 2499 of FIG.24A). In some implementations, the entity configuration is managed by anaccount system of the platform system (e.g., the account system 2430 ofFIG. 24B). FIG. 25 depicts exemplary account information 2511-2515managed by the account system 2430 for Entity A, Entity B, Entity C,Entity D, and Entity E, respectively. In some implementations, theentity configuration is managed by a policy engine of the platformsystem (e.g., the policy engine 2431 of FIG. 24B). In someimplementations, entity configuration related to a micro-service ismanaged by the micro-service (e.g., 2421-2423 FIG. 24A).

The plurality of entities include at least one of a platform account,sub-account, organization, user, and service instance. Entityconfiguration is received from at least one external system (e.g.,2451-2455) via an account management interface. In some implementations,the account management interface includes an account portal userinterface provided by the platform system 2400. In some implementations,the account management interface includes an account management APIprovided by the platform system 2400 (e.g., an API provided by the APIsystem 2483). Entity configuration for the entity includes micro-serviceconfiguration for use of at least one of the plurality of mediacommunication micro-services (e.g., 2421-2423) by the entity (e.g., anentity of one of the systems 2451-2455). Micro-service configurationspecifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to at least oneapplication logic URI of an external system (e.g., 2452-2455), an eventcallback URI of an external system (e.g., 2452-2455), and an eventapplication logic URI of an external system (e.g., 2452-2455). Theplatform system 2400 includes at least one micro-service API resource(e.g., the resources depicted in FIG. 24A for micro-services 2421-2423)for each enrolled entity (e.g., “Entity A Resources”, “Entity BResources”, “Entity C Resources”, “Entity D Resources”, “Entity EResources”.)

Use of the micro-service (e.g., 2421-2423) includes at least onecomputing resource of the platform system 2400 executingcomputer-readable instructions of the micro-service. The platform system2400 includes at least one regionally distributed micro-service, and theplatform system 2400 includes computing resources in at least twogeographic regions for the regionally distributed micro-service. Theplatform system 2400 (e.g., the resource management system 2490 of FIG.24A) determines computing resources for use of the regionallydistributed micro-service based on a region of at least one mediacommunication endpoint of media communication that uses the regionallydistributed micro-service.

In some implementations, the two geographical regions are spatiallyseparated by a globally significant transmission distance, as describedherein.

In some implementations, a regionally distributed micro-service hascomputing resources in at least two geographic regions, and the platformsystem 2400 determines which of the computing resources to use tominimize communication latency for media communication that uses theregionally distributed micro-service. In some implementations, theplatform system 2400 determines a region of at least one mediacommunication endpoint of the media communication that uses theregionally distributed micro-service. In some implementations, theplatform system 2400 determines computing resources of the regionallydistributed micro-service that are located in a region that is locatedin the same region as the region of the endpoint or in a region that isnearest to the region of the endpoint. In some implementations, theplatform system 2400 determines regional computing resources of theregionally distributed micro-service that result in less communicationlatency for communication with the endpoint, as compared withcommunication latency resulting from using computing resources inanother region.

Multiple Micro-Services

In some implementations, entity configuration for the entity (e.g., theentities A-E depicted in FIGS. 24A and 25) includes micro-serviceconfiguration for use of two or more micro-services (e.g., 2421-2423) ofthe plurality of media communication micro-services by the entity. Insome implementations, the micro-service configuration for use of the twoor more micro-services includes configuration for independent use of thetwo or more micro-services. In some implementations, a first applicationof an entity uses a first micro-service and a second application of theentity uses a second micro-service, and the entity uses the firstmicro-service independently from the second micro-service. For example,a first application of an entity can use a signaling micro-service toestablish media communication, and a second application of the entitycan establish media communication without using the platform system 2400but uses a media micro-service of the platform system 2400 to performtranscoding of media communication.

In some implementations, the micro-service configuration for use of themicro-services includes configuration for combined use of themicro-services. In some implementations, a first micro-service iscombined with a second micro service (of the micro-services configuredfor the entity) by configuring at least one of an endpoint mapping, anevent callback URI, and an event application logic URI of the firstmicro-service to specify the second micro-service.

In some implementations, the platform system combines the firstmicro-service with the second micro-service responsive to user inputreceived via at least one of the account portal user interface and anAPI of the platform system. The platform system combines the firstmicro-service with the second micro-service by generating micro-serviceconfiguration for the first micro-service that specifies the secondmicro-service in at least one of an endpoint mapping, an event callbackURI, and an event application logic URI of the first micro-service.

In some implementations, an entity combines a signaling micro-servicewith another micro-service, such as, for example, a transcoding mediamicro-service and a transcription media micro-service (as describedabove for FIG. 14). The signaling micro-service establishes mediacommunication between two media communication endpoints (e.g., Client 2a and Client 2 b of FIG. 14). The signaling micro-service generates anevent responsive to receipt of new media stream data by the signalingmicro-service. The micro-service configuration for the signalingmicro-service includes an event callback URI for the generated eventthat specifies a URI for the transcoding media micro-service (e.g.,“/transcodingService/Accounts/{AccountSid}”) for the new media streamdata event. In some implementations, the event callback URI is scoped tothe entity (e.g., by specifying an account ID of the entity that ismanaged by the account system 2430). In some implementations, the URIfor the transcoding media micro-service specifies a resource (e.g.,/Accounts/{AccountSid}) of the transcoding media micro-service thatcorresponds to an entity (e.g., the entity identified by “AccountSid”,which is an account managed by the account system 2430) associated withthe media communication. For example, in a case where the Micro-ServiceB 2422 of FIG. 24A is the transcoding media micro-service and the mediacommunication is associated with Entity E, the URI for the transcodingmedia micro-service specifies the Entity E resources. Upon detection ofthe new media stream data event, by the event trigger system 2484, thenew media stream data is relayed to the transcoding media micro-servicevia an API call to the event callback URI.

The transcoding media micro-service generates an event responsive tocompletion of media transcoding, and the micro-service configuration forthe transcoding media micro-service includes an event callback URI forthe generated event that specifies a URI for the signaling micro-service(e.g., “/SignalingService/Accounts/{AccountSid}”) for the transcodingcompletion event. Upon detection of the transcoding completion event bythe event trigger system 2484, the transcoded media is provided to thesignaling micro-service via an API call to the event callback URI forthe signaling micro-service. The micro-service configuration for thetranscoding media micro-service also includes an event callback URI forthe generated event that specifies a URI for the transcriptionmicro-service (e.g., “/TranscriptionService/Accounts/{AccountSid}”) forthe transcoding completion event. Upon detection of the transcodingcompletion event by the event trigger system 2484, the transcoded mediais provided to the transcription micro-service via an API call to theevent callback URI for the transcription micro-service. In someimplementations, each of the signaling micro-service, the transcriptionmedia micro-service and the transcoding media micro-service havedifferent micro-service configuration. In some implementations, each ofthe signaling micro-service, the transcription media micro-service andthe transcoding media micro-service have different billing profiles. Insome implementations, each of the signaling micro-service, thetranscription media micro-service and the transcoding mediamicro-service each have billing profiles (e.g., billing profiles similarto the billing profiles described herein for the billing engine 150 ofFIG. 1).

In some implementations, use of the at least one micro-service includesuse of a first micro-service and a second micro-service. In someimplementations, a request to the first micro-service includes a dataparameter that specifies use of the second micro-service. In someimplementations, micro-service configuration for the first micro-servicespecifies use of the second micro-service. For example, micro-serviceconfiguration for a signaling micro-service can specify use of a mediarecording micro-service for media communication established by thesignaling micro-service. In some implementations, use of the secondmicro-service is directed in response to an event in which the firstmicro-service calls out to an event application logic URI of an externalapplication server to retrieve processing instructions, and theprocessing instructions retrieved via the event application logic URIdirect the use of the second micro-service, the event application logicURI being configured for the event. In some implementations, the secondmicro-service is activated in response to an asynchronously received APIrequest to a micro-service API resource of the first micro-service. Forexample, during a video chat session over a signaling micro-service, aREST API request is received by the platform 2400 that references anidentifier for the video chat session, and directs a modification tomedia routing of the video chat session to include one or more mediamicro-services.

Regionally Distributed Micro-Services

In some implementations, entity configuration for the entity (e.g., theentities A-E depicted in FIGS. 24A and 25) includes micro-serviceconfiguration for use of two or more micro-services (e.g., 2421-2423) ofthe plurality of media communication micro-services by the entity, andthe first micro-service is a regionally distributed micro-service. Theregionally distributed micro-service has computing resources in at leasttwo geographic regions, the platform system 2400 uses computingresources of the first micro-service that are of a geographic regionthat is nearest to a region of at least one media communication endpointof media communication that uses the first micro-service. In someimplementations, the first micro-service is a signaling micro-serviceand a second micro-service is a media micro-service. In someimplementations, the platform system 2400 establishes mediacommunication by using the signaling micro-service, and the establishedmedia communication is managed by using the media micro-service.

Media Communication

In some implementations, the media communication micro-services includeat least one of: media communication micro-services that are constructedto provide peer-to-peer media communication; media communicationmicro-services that are constructed to provide peer-to-peer real-timemedia communication; and media communication micro-services that areconstructed to provide real-time media communication.

In some implementations, media communication is asynchronous mediacommunication, and asynchronous media communication includes messaging.In some implementations, media communication is synchronous mediacommunication, and synchronous media communication includes at least oneof voice and video communication.

Micro-Service Configuration

In some implementations, an endpoint mapping specifies a mapping of atelephony endpoint to the application URI of an external system (e.g.,an external system 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A), each application URI is usedby the platform system 2400 to retrieve application instructions fromthe external system (e.g., 2451-2455) associated with the applicationURI, and the platform system 2400 executes the retrieved instructions.

In some implementations, each event application logic URI is used by theplatform system 2400 to retrieve instructions to be executed by theplatform system 2400 responsive to detection of an event associated withthe event application logic URI. The detection is performed by theplatform system 2400.

In some implementations, each event callback URI is used by the platformsystem 2400 to notify the associated external system (e.g., 2451-2455)of detection of the event associated with the event callback URI by theplatform system 2400.

In some implementations, each micro-service API resource (e.g., theentity resources depicted in FIG. 24A for micro-services 2421-2423) ofthe platform system 2400 provides at least one of: access tomicro-service configuration of the micro-service for a correspondingentity; access to micro-service information of the micro-service for thecorresponding entity; and use of the micro-service for the correspondingentity. In some implementations, each micro-service API resource (e.g.,the entity resources depicted in FIG. 24A for micro-services 2421-2423)of the platform system 2400 provides at least one of: access tomicro-service data of the micro-service for a corresponding entity; andaccess to micro-service media of the micro-service for the correspondingentity.

In some implementations, at least one micro-service API resource of theplatform system is accessed by an external system via a public API(e.g., an API of the API system 2483 of FIG. 24A) provided by theplatform system 2400.

In some implementations, responsive to detection of an event associatedwith an event callback URI by the platform system 2400 (e.g., by usingthe event trigger system 2484), the platform system 2400 provides eventinformation to the external system (e.g., 2451-2455) associated with theevent callback URI in a request to the event callback URI. In someimplementations, the request to the event callback URI is an HTTPrequest.

In some implementations, each micro-service has different micro-serviceconfiguration. In some implementations, two or more micro-services havedifferent micro-service configuration.

Accounting and Billing

In some implementations, accounting for micro-service usage of at leastone micro-service (e.g., 2421-2423) configured for the entity (e.g.,Entities A-E) includes: metering access of at least one configuredmicro-service API resource by the entity. In some implementations, theplatform system 2400 accounts for micro-service usage by each entityindependently. In some implementations, the platform system 2400accounts for micro-service usage of each micro-service independently. Insome implementations, the platform system 2400 performs billing for eachentity based on the accounting of micro-service usage by each entity.

In some implementations, each micro-service has a different billingprofile. In some implementations, at least two micro-services havedifferent billing profiles. In some implementations, each micro-servicehas at least one billing profile (e.g., a billing profile similar to thebilling profiles described herein for the billing engine 150 of FIG. 1).In some implementations, each micro-service has at least one billingprofile for each entity configured for the micro-service (e.g., abilling profile similar to the billing profiles described herein for thebilling engine 150 of FIG. 1). In some implementations, eachmicro-service has a billing profile for at least one entity configuredfor the micro-service.

In some implementations, each entity has a different billing profile. Insome implementations, at least two entities have different billingprofiles. In some implementations, each entity has at least one billingprofile (e.g., a billing profile similar to the billing profilesdescribed herein for the billing engine 150 of FIG. 1). In someimplementations, each entity has a billing profile (e.g., a billingprofile similar to the billing profiles described herein for the billingengine 150 of FIG. 1) for at least one micro-service configured for theentity.

In some implementations, the method 2600 is similar to the method 200 ofFIG. 2. In some implementations, the process S2610 is similar to theprocess S210 of FIG. 2. In some implementations, the process S2610 issimilar to the process S220 of FIG. 2. In some implementations, theprocess S2620 is similar to the process S230 of FIG. 2. In someimplementations, the process S2630 is similar to the process S240 ofFIG. 2. In some implementations, the process S2640 is similar to theprocess S240 of FIG. 2.

In some implementations, the method 2600 is similar to the method 1500of FIG. 15. In some implementations, the process S2610 is similar to theprocess S1510 of FIG. 15. In some implementations, the process S2610 issimilar to the process S1520 of FIG. 15. In some implementations, theprocess S2620 is similar to the process S1530 of FIG. 15. In someimplementations, the process S2630 is similar to the process S1540 ofFIG. 15. In some implementations, the process S2640 is similar to theprocess S1540 of FIG. 15.

In some implementations, the process S2610 is performed by theoperational services 2499. In some implementations, the process S2610 isperformed by the account system 2430. In some implementations, theprocess S2610 is performed by the account system 2430 and the policyengine 2431. In some implementations, the process S2610 is performed bytwo or more of the account system 2430, the policy engine 2431, and theMS interface 2480.

In some implementations, the process S2620 is performed by theoperational services 2499. In some implementations, the process S2620 isperformed by one or more of the account system 2430, the policy engine2431, the MS interface 2480, the resource management system 2490, theevent trigger system 2484, and the fraud detection system 2470.

In some implementations, the process S2630 is performed by theoperational services 2499. In some implementations, the process S2630 isperformed by one or more of the account system 2430, the policy engine2431, the MS interface 2480, metering and logging system 2440 and thebilling engine 2450. In some implementations, the process S2630 isperformed by the account system 2430.

In some implementations, the process S2640 is performed by theoperational services 2499. In some implementations, the process S2640 isperformed by one or more of the account system 2430, the metering andlogging system 2440 and the billing engine 2450. In someimplementations, the process S2640 is performed by the billing engine2450.

Additional Embodiments of the Method 2600

In some embodiments, the method 2600 includes: enrolling at least oneentity in the platform system by setting entity configuration for use ofthe platform system by the at least one entity; processing at least onemicro-service request according to the entity configuration for the atleast one entity, the at least one micro-service request being a requestfor use of at least one micro-service of the platform system on behalfof the at least one entity; and accounting for the use of the at leastone micro-service on behalf of the at least one entity. The entityconfiguration is received from at least one external system via anaccount management interface, the account management interface includinga least one of an account portal user interface and an accountmanagement API. The entity configuration includes micro-serviceconfiguration for use of at least one of the plurality of mediacommunication micro-services by the at least one entity, micro-serviceconfiguration specifying at least one of: an endpoint mapping to atleast one application logic URI of an external system, and an eventcallback URI of an external system. The platform system includes atleast one micro-service API resource for each enrolled entity.

In some implementations, entity configuration includes micro-serviceconfiguration for use of two or more micro-services. The micro-serviceconfiguration for use of the two or more micro-services includesconfiguration for combined use of the two or more micro-services. Afirst micro-service is combined with a second micro service of the twoor more micro-services by configuring at least one of an endpointmapping and an event callback URI of the first micro-service to specifythe second micro-service.

In some implementations, the platform system combines the firstmicro-service with the second micro-service responsive to user inputreceived via at least one of the account portal user interface and anAPI of the platform system. The platform system combines the firstmicro-service with the second micro-service by generating micro-serviceconfiguration for the first micro-service that specifies the secondmicro-service in at least one of an endpoint mapping and an eventcallback URI of the first micro-service.

In some implementations, use of the at least one micro-service includesat least one computing resource of the platform system executingcomputer-readable instructions of the at least one micro-service. Theplatform system includes at least one regionally distributedmicro-service, the platform system including computing resources in atleast two geographic regions for the at least one regionally distributedmicro-service, the platform system determining computing resources foruse of the at least one distributed micro-service based on a region ofat least one media communication endpoint of media communication thatuses the at least one regionally distributed micro-service. The firstmicro-service is a regionally distributed micro-service having computingresources in at least two geographic regions, and the platform systemuses computing resources of the first micro-service that are of ageographic region that is nearest to a region of at least one mediacommunication endpoint of media communication that uses the firstmicro-service.

In some implementations, accounting for micro-service usage of at leastone micro-service configured for the at least one entity includes:metering access of at least one configured micro-service resource API bythe at least one entity. In some implementations, the platform systemaccounts for micro-service usage by each entity independently. In someimplementations, the platform system accounts for micro-service usage ofeach micro-service independently, and the platform system performsbilling for each entity based on the accounting of micro-service usageby each entity. In some implementations, a first micro-service is asignaling micro-service and a second micro-service is a mediamicro-service, and the platform system establishes media communicationby using the signaling micro-service, and the established mediacommunication is managed by using the media micro-service.

In some implementations, the plurality of entities include at least oneof a platform account and a platform sub-account.

In some implementations, the method 2600 includes generating billinginformation for the at least one entity based on the accounting for theuse of the at least one micro-service on behalf of the at least oneentity. In some implementations, the method 2600 includes notifying theat least one entity based on the accounting for the use of the at leastone micro-service on behalf of the at least one entity. In someimplementations, the method 2600 includes performing fraud detection forthe at least one entity based on the accounting for the use of the atleast one micro-service on behalf of the at least one entity.

In some implementations, use of the at least one micro-service includes:operating on media of media communication of the at least one entity.

In some implementations, operating on media of media communication ofthe at least one entity includes: mutably operating on the media bymodifying the media. In some implementations, the at least onemicro-service is a synchronous media micro-service, such as, forexample, a transcoding micro-service. In some implementations, the atleast one micro-service is an asynchronous media micro-service, such as,for example, a media redacting micro-service, a micro-serviceconstructed to remove silence from a recording, and the like. In someimplementations, the media redacting micro-service functions to removeelements of the media that are sensitive. In some implementations, themedia redacting micro-service functions to automatically detect apattern in the media and apply censorship to a portion of the media thatcorresponds to the pattern. For example, the media redactingmicro-service functions can be constructed to automatically detect atleast one of credit card numbers, social security numbers, accountnumbers, addresses, and other suitable forms of information in the mediaand automatically remove such detected information from the media.

In some implementations, operating on media of media communication ofthe at least one entity includes: immutably operating on the media bypreserving the media. In some implementations, the at least onemicro-service is a synchronous media micro-service, such as, forexample, a real-time speech detection media micro-service. In someimplementations, the at least one micro-service is an asynchronous mediamicro-service, such as, for example, a speech to text micro-service, anemotion detection micro-service, and the like.

8. SIGNALING MICRO-SERVICE

In some embodiments, at least one of the micro-services 2421-2423 ofFIG. 24A is a signaling micro-service, such as, for example, a networkdiscovery micro-service. In some implementations, the signalingmicro-service is similar to the STUN/TURN micro-services (STMS) of FIG.13.

FIG. 27 depicts a signaling micro-service method 2700 that is performedat a multi-tenant media communication platform system (e.g., the system2400 of FIG. 24) that includes a plurality of media communicationmicro-services (e.g., 2421-2423 of FIG. 24A) and micro-serviceconfiguration for a plurality of entities (e.g., the entitiescorresponding to the systems 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A, the entitiesdepicted in FIG. 24B) configured for use of the platform system (e.g.,2400). The plurality of media communication micro-services include atleast one signaling micro-service. In some implementations, thesignaling micro-service configuration is managed by operational servicesof the platform system (e.g., the operational services 2499 of FIG.24A). In some implementations, the signaling micro-service configurationis managed by an account system of the platform system (e.g., theaccount system 2430 of FIG. 24B). In some implementations, the signalingmicro-service configuration is managed by a policy engine of theplatform system (e.g., the policy engine 2431 of FIG. 24B). In someimplementations, the signaling micro-service configuration is managed bythe signaling micro-service of the platform system (e.g., 2421-2423 FIG.24A).

The method 2700 includes: enrolling an entity in the platform system,enrolling the entity comprising setting entity configuration for use ofthe signaling micro-service by the entity (process S2710); processing asignaling micro-service request according to the entity configurationfor the entity, the signaling micro-service request being a request foruse of the signaling micro-service on behalf of the entity (processS2720); accounting for the use of the signaling micro-service on behalfof the entity (process S2730); and generating billing information forthe entity based on the accounting for the use of the signalingmicro-service on behalf of the entity (process S2740).

The plurality of entities include at least one of a platform account,sub-account, organization, user, and service instance. Entityconfiguration is received from at least one external system via anaccount management interface, the account management interface includinga least one of an account portal user interface and an accountmanagement API. Entity configuration for the entity includesmicro-service configuration for use of the signaling micro-service bythe entity. The micro-service configuration for the signalingmicro-service specifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to at leastone application logic URI of an external system, an event callback URIof an external system, and an event application logic URI of an externalsystem. The platform system includes at least one signalingmicro-service API resource for the enrolled entity.

The use of the signaling micro-service includes at least one computingresource of the platform system 2400 executing computer-readableinstructions of the signaling micro-service. The signaling micro-serviceis a regionally distributed micro-service, and the platform system 2400includes computing resources in at least two geographic regions for thesignaling micro-service. The platform system determines (e.g., by usingthe resource management system 2490) computing resources for use of thesignaling micro-service based on a region of at least one mediacommunication endpoint of media communication that uses the signalingmicro-service.

Multiple Micro-Services

In some implementations, the signaling micro-service is configured formedia communication that passes through the platform system 2400. Entityconfiguration for the entity includes the signaling micro-serviceconfiguration and micro-service configuration for use of a mediamicro-service by the entity. The media micro-service is a micro-serviceof the plurality of micro-services of the media communication platformsystem 2400.

In some implementations, the signaling micro-service and the mediamicro-service are configured to be used independently.

In some implementations, the signaling micro-service and the mediamicro-service are configured to be used in combination. In someimplementations, the signaling micro-service is combined with the mediamicro-service by configuring at least one of an endpoint mapping, anevent callback URI, and an event application logic URI of the signalingmicro-service to specify the media micro-service. In someimplementations, the platform system 2400 combines the signalingmicro-service with the media micro-service responsive to user inputreceived via at least one of the account portal user interface and anAPI of the platform system 2400, the platform system 2400 combining thesignaling micro-service with the media micro-service by generatingmicro-service configuration for the signaling micro-service thatspecifies the media micro-service in at least one of: an endpointmapping, an event callback URI; an event application logic URI of thesignaling micro-service.

In some implementations, use of the signaling micro-service includescombined use of the signaling micro-service with a media micro-service.In some implementations, a request to the signaling micro-serviceincludes a data parameter that specifies use of the media micro-service.In some implementations, micro-service configuration for the signalingmicro-service specifies use of the media micro-service. For example,micro-service configuration for the signaling micro-service can specifyuse of a media recording micro-service for media communicationestablished by the signaling micro-service. In some implementations, useof the media micro-service is directed in response to an event in whichthe signaling micro-service calls out to an event application logic URIof an external application server to retrieve processing instructions,and the processing instructions retrieved via the event applicationlogic URI direct the use of the second micro-service, the eventapplication logic URI being configured for the event. In someimplementations, the media micro-service is activated in response to anasynchronously received API request to a micro-service API resource ofthe signaling micro-service. For example, during a video chat sessionover the signaling micro-service, a REST API request is received by theplatform 2400 that references an identifier for the video chat session,and directs a modification to media routing of the video chat session toinclude one or more media micro-services.

Signaling Micro-Service Configuration

In some implementations, each signaling micro-service API resource ofthe platform system provides at least one of: access to micro-serviceconfiguration of the signaling micro-service for a corresponding entity;access to signaling micro-service information of the micro-service forthe corresponding entity; and use of the signaling micro-service for thecorresponding entity. In some implementations, each signalingmicro-service API resource of the platform system provides at least oneof: access to micro-service data of the signaling micro-service for acorresponding entity; and access to signaling micro-service media of themicro-service for the corresponding entity.

Regionally Distributed Signaling Micro-Service

In some implementations, the signaling micro-service is a regionallydistributed micro-service having computing resources in at least twogeographic regions. The platform system 2400 uses computing resources ofthe signaling micro-service that are of a geographic region that isnearest to a region of at least one media communication endpoint ofmedia communication that uses the signaling micro-service. In someimplementations, the platform system 2400 establishes mediacommunication by using the signaling micro-service, and the establishedmedia communication is managed by using a media micro-service.

STUN/TURN

In some implementations, the signaling micro-service is a STUN/TURNservice, and the signaling micro-service is configured to use TURN forthe media communication. In some implementations, the at least onesignaling micro-service API resource for the enrolled entity includes atleast a TURN service token instance resource that is used by the entityto access a TURN service token for using the signaling micro-service formedia communication that passes through the platform system. In someimplementations, in a case wherein the signaling micro-serviceconfiguration specifies at least one of communication session monitoringand communication session interaction, the signaling micro-service isconfigured for media communication that passes through the platformsystem 2400.

Accounting and Billing

In some implementations, accounting for the use of the signalingmicro-service on behalf of the entity includes accounting based on atleast one of: a number of network discovery attempts, time of mediastreaming, and data transfer of media streaming. In someimplementations, generating billing information includes generatingbilling information based on modality of a communication stream of themedia communication, wherein audio streaming is billed differently fromvideo streaming. In some implementations, generating billing informationincludes generating billing information based the type of media beingcommunicated. In some implementations, the platform system 2400 uses thebilling engine 2450 to generate different billing information fordifferent types of media communication, such as for example, videocommunication, audio communication, photo communication, and the like.

Implementations of the Method 2700

In some implementations, the method 2700 is similar to the method 2600.

In some implementations, setting entity configuration (e.g., the processS2710) is performed as described herein for block A110 of FIG. 16. Insome implementations, micro-service configuration for the signalingmicro-service includes allocating mappings as described herein for blockA110 of FIG. 16 and mapping requests to the entity as described hereinfor block A130 of FIG. 16. In some implementations, processing asignaling micro-service request (e.g., the process S2720) includesinitiating a network discovery session as described herein for blockA120 of FIG. 16.

In some implementations, accounting for use of the signalingmicro-service (e.g., the process S2730) includes monitoring usage asdescribed herein for block A140 of FIG. 16.

In some implementations, the method 2700 includes the platform system2400 applying service management processing to the signalingmicro-service request as described herein for block A150 of FIG. 16. Insome implementations, the method 2700 includes the platform system 2400servicing a network discovery session for the signaling micro-servicerequest as described herein for block A160 of FIG. 16.

In some implementations, the method 2700 is similar to the method 2600of FIG. 26. In some implementations, the process S2710 is similar to theprocess S2610 of FIG. 26. In some implementations, the process S2720 issimilar to the process S2620 of FIG. 26. In some implementations, theprocess S2730 is similar to the process S2630 of FIG. 26. In someimplementations, the process S2740 is similar to the process S2640 ofFIG. 26.

In some implementations, the method 2700 is similar to the method 1600of FIG. 16. In some implementations, the process S2710 is similar to theprocess A110 of FIG. 16. In some implementations, the process S2710 issimilar to the process A130 of FIG. 16. In some implementations, theprocess S2720 is similar to the process A120 of FIG. 16. In someimplementations, the process S2720 is similar to the process A130 ofFIG. 16. In some implementations, the process S2730 is similar to theprocess A140 of FIG. 16. In some implementations, the process S2720includes processing similar to the process A150 of FIG. 16. In someimplementations, the process S2720 includes processing similar to theprocess A160 of FIG. 16.

Additional Embodiments of the Method 2700

In some embodiments, the method 2700 includes: enrolling an entity inthe platform system by setting entity configuration for use of thesignaling micro-service by the entity; processing a signalingmicro-service request according to the entity configuration for theentity, the signaling micro-service request being a request for use ofthe signaling micro-service on behalf of the entity; and accounting forthe use of the signaling micro-service on behalf of the entity. Theplatform system includes at least one signaling micro-service APIresource for the entity.

Use of the signaling micro-service includes: determining one of anetwork address discovery process and a media relay process forperforming signaling negotiation to establish a communication stream; ina case where the network address discovery process is determined,servicing a network discovery session to discover a public IP addressfor establishing the communication stream, the communication streambeing a peer-to-peer communication stream; and in a case where the mediarelay process is determined, servicing a media relay session to bridgemedia of the communication stream between at least two mediacommunication endpoints of the communication stream.

In some implementations, servicing a network discovery session includes:performing STUN signaling negotiation to establish a peer-to-peer mediacommunication session, and the communication stream is communicated viathe established peer-to-peer media communication session. In someimplementations, servicing a network discovery session further includesmaintaining a signaling connection to the peer-to-peer mediacommunication session at the multi-tenant media communication platformsystem. In some implementations, performing STUN signaling negotiationincludes performing a network address discovery service that enables thediscovery of public IP address to be used in P2P communication.

In some implementations, servicing a media relay session includes:performing TURN signaling negotiation to establish a media communicationsession, and routing media of the communication session through thesignaling micro-service. In some implementations, performing TURNsignaling negotiation includes performing a media relay service whichprovides an accessible, intermediary media router to bridge mediastreams between a set of participants wherein at least one of theparticipants is unavailable. In some implementations, routing media ofthe communication session through the signaling micro-service includesrouting the media of the communication session to a supplementary mediaservice of the communication platform system. In some implementations,the supplementary media service is a media micro-service. In someimplementations, the supplementary media service is a media service ofthe signaling micro-service. In some implementations, the supplementarymedia service is provided by a media service module that is included inthe signaling micro-service, and wherein the supplementary media serviceis selectively activated.

In some implementations, the entity configuration includes signalingmicro-service configuration for use of the signaling micro-service bythe entity, micro-service configuration specifying at least one of: anendpoint mapping to at least one application logic URI of an externalsystem, and an event callback URI of an external system. In someimplementations, the entity configuration is received from at least oneexternal system via an account management interface, the accountmanagement interface including a least one of an account portal userinterface and an account management API.

In some implementations, entity configuration for the entity includesthe signaling micro-service configuration and micro-serviceconfiguration for use of a media micro-service by the entity, the mediamicro-service being a micro-service of the plurality of micro-servicesof the media communication platform system. The signaling micro-serviceis combined with the media micro service by configuring at least one ofan endpoint mapping and an event callback URI of the signalingmicro-service to specify the media micro-service.

In some implementations, the platform system combines the signalingmicro-service with the media micro-service responsive to user inputreceived via at least one of the account portal user interface and anAPI of the platform system. The platform system combines the signalingmicro-service with the media micro-service by generating micro-serviceconfiguration for the signaling micro-service that specifies the mediamicro-service in at least one of an endpoint mapping and an eventcallback URI of the signaling micro-service.

In some implementations, use of the signaling micro-service comprises atleast one computing resource of the platform system executingcomputer-readable instructions of the signaling micro-service. Thesignaling micro-service is a regionally distributed micro-service, theplatform system including computing resources in at least two geographicregions for the signaling micro-service. The platform system determinescomputing resources for use of the signaling micro-service based on aregion of at least one media communication endpoint of mediacommunication that uses the signaling micro-service.

In some implementations, the signaling micro-service API resourceprovides at least one of: access to signaling micro-serviceconfiguration; access to signaling micro-service information; access tomicro-service data; access to signaling micro-service media; and use ofthe signaling micro-service. In some implementations, the signalingmicro-service API resource is accessed by an external system via apublic API provided by the platform system.

In some implementations, accounting for the use of the signalingmicro-service comprises: metering access of the signaling micro-serviceresource by the entity. In some implementations, the platform systemaccounts for signaling micro-service usage by each entity independently.In some implementations, the platform system performs billing for eachentity based on the accounting of signaling micro-service usage by eachentity.

In some implementations, a request to the signaling micro-serviceincludes a data parameter that specifies use of a media micro-service.In some implementations, signaling micro-service configuration for thesignaling micro-service specifies use of a media micro-service. In someimplementations, use of a media micro-service is directed in response toan event in which the signaling micro-service calls out to an eventapplication logic URI of an external application server to retrieveprocessing instructions, and the processing instructions retrieved viathe event application logic URI direct the use of the mediamicro-service, the event application logic URI being configured for theevent. In some implementations, a media micro-service is activated inresponse to an asynchronously received API request to a signalingmicro-service API resource of the signaling micro-service.

In some implementations, the plurality of entities include at least oneof a platform account and a platform sub-account.

In some implementations, the method includes generating billinginformation for the entity based on the accounting for the use of thesignaling micro-service on behalf of the entity. In someimplementations, the method includes notifying the entity based on theaccounting for the use of the signaling micro-service on behalf of theentity. In some implementations, the method includes performing frauddetection for the entity based on the accounting for the use of thesignaling micro-service on behalf of the entity.

In some implementations, the supplementary media service mutablyoperates on the media by modifying the media. In some implementations,the mutable supplementary media service is a synchronous media service,such as, for example, a transcoding media service. In someimplementations, the mutable supplementary media service is anasynchronous media service such as, for example, a media redactingservice.

In some implementations, the supplementary media service immutablyoperates on the media on the media by preserving the media. In someimplementations, the immutable supplementary media service is asynchronous media service, such as, for example, a real-time speechdetection media service. In some implementations, the immutablesupplementary media service is an asynchronous media service, such as,for example, a speech to text service, an emotion detection service, andthe like.

9. TRANSCODING MICRO-SERVICE

In some embodiments, at least one of the micro-services 2421-2423 ofFIG. 24A is a transcoding micro-service.

In some embodiments, a transcoding micro-service method that isperformed at a multi-tenant media communication platform system (e.g.,the system 2400 of FIG. 24) is similar to the method 2600. In someembodiments, the multi-tenant media communication platform systemincludes a plurality of media communication micro-services (e.g.,2421-2423 of FIG. 24A) and micro-service configuration for a pluralityof entities (e.g., the entities corresponding to the systems 2451-2455of FIG. 24A, the entities depicted in FIG. 24B) configured for use ofthe platform system (e.g., 2400). The plurality of media communicationmicro-services include at least one transcoding micro-service. In someimplementations, the transcoding micro-service configuration is managedby operational services of the platform system (e.g., the operationalservices 2499 of FIG. 24A). In some implementations, the transcodingmicro-service configuration is managed by an account system of theplatform system (e.g., the account system 2430 of FIG. 24B). In someimplementations, the transcoding micro-service configuration is managedby a policy engine of the platform system (e.g., the policy engine 2431of FIG. 24B). In some implementations, the transcoding micro-serviceconfiguration is managed by the transcoding micro-service of theplatform system (e.g., 2421-2423 FIG. 24A).

The transcoding micro-service method includes: enrolling an entity inthe platform system (e.g., 2400), enrolling the entity comprisingsetting entity configuration for use of the transcoding micro-service bythe entity (e.g., enrolling in a manner similar to the process S2610 ofFIG. 26); processing a transcoding micro-service request according tothe entity configuration for the entity, the transcoding micro-servicerequest being a request for use of the transcoding micro-service onbehalf of the entity (e.g., processing in a manner similar to theprocess S2620 of FIG. 26); accounting for the use of the transcodingmicro-service on behalf of the entity (e.g., accounting for use in amanner similar to the process S2630 of FIG. 26); and generating billinginformation for the entity based on the accounting for the use of thetranscoding micro-service on behalf of the entity (e.g., generatingbilling information in a manner similar to the process S2640 of FIG.26).

The plurality of entities include at least one of a platform account,sub-account, organization, user, and service instance. Entityconfiguration is received from at least one external system via anaccount management interface, the account management interface includinga least one of an account portal user interface and an accountmanagement API. Entity configuration for the entity includesmicro-service configuration for use of the transcoding micro-service bythe entity. The micro-service configuration for the transcodingmicro-service specifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to at leastone application logic URI, an event callback URI, and an eventapplication logic URI. In some implementations, micro-serviceconfiguration for the transcoding micro-service specifies at least oneof: an endpoint mapping to at least one application logic URI of amicro-service of the platform system 2400, an event callback URI of amicro-service of the platform system 2400, and an event applicationlogic URI of a micro-service of the platform system 2400. In someimplementations, micro-service configuration for the transcodingmicro-service specifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to at leastone application logic URI of an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG.24A), an event callback URI of an external system, and an eventapplication logic URI of an external system.

The platform system includes at least one transcoding micro-service APIresource for the enrolled entity.

The use of the transcoding micro-service includes at least one computingresource of the platform system 2400 executing computer-readableinstructions of the transcoding micro-service.

The platform system 2400 includes at least one regionally distributedmicro-service, and the platform system 2400 includes computing resourcesin at least two geographic regions for the regionally distributedmicro-service. The platform system 2400 (e.g., the resource managementsystem 2490 of FIG. 24A) determines computing resources for use of theregionally distributed micro-service based on a region of at least onemedia communication endpoint of media communication that uses theregionally distributed micro-service.

Input

In some implementations, the transcoding micro-service receives at leastone of a media stream, a reference to a media stream (e.g., a URI), amedia resource, and a reference to a media resource (e.g., URI) as aninput. In some implementations, the transcoding micro-service receivesthe input via the transcoding micro-service API (e.g., one of 2491-2493of FIG. 24A).

In some implementations, the transcoding micro-service receives theinput from an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, an external system of the enrolled entity provides theinput via a request to the generated transcoding micro-service APIresource of the transcoding micro-service.

In some implementations, the transcoding micro-service receives theinput from a micro-service (e.g., 2421-2423) of the platform system2400. In some implementations, micro-service configuration for themicro-service that provides the input to the transcoding micro-servicespecifies an event callback URI of the transcoding micro-service. Insome implementations, the micro-service that provides the input to thetranscoding micro-service provides the input via a transcodingmicro-service API call to the configured event callback URI of thetranscoding micro-service.

Output

In some implementations, the transcoding micro-service provides at leastone of a transcoded media stream, a reference to a transcoded mediastream (e.g., a URI), a transcoded media resource, and a reference to atranscoded media resource (e.g., URI) as an output. In someimplementations, the transcoding micro-service provides the output viathe transcoding micro-service API (e.g., one of 2491-2493 of FIG. 24A).

In some implementations, the transcoding micro-service provides theoutput to an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, micro-service configuration for the transcodingmicro-service specifies an event callback URI of the external system. Insome implementations, the transcoding micro-service provides the outputvia a request to the configured event callback URI of the externalsystem. In some implementations, micro-service configuration for thetranscoding micro-service specifies an event application logic URI ofthe external system. In some implementations, the transcodingmicro-service retrieves application instructions from the externalsystem by providing a request to the application logic URI, and thetranscoding micro-service executes the retrieved applicationinstructions to process the output.

In some implementations, the transcoding micro-service provides theoutput to a micro-service (e.g., 2421-2423) of the platform system 2400.In some implementations, micro-service configuration for the transcodingmicro-service specifies an event callback URI of another micro-serviceof the platform system 2400. In some implementations, the event callbackURI is a URI of a resource of the other micro-service that the platformsystem 2400 generates for the enrolled entity during enrollment of theentity for the other micro-service. In some implementations, thetranscoding micro-service provides the output via a request to theconfigured event callback URI of the other micro-service. In someimplementations, micro-service configuration for the transcodingmicro-service specifies an event application logic URI of anothermicro-service of the platform system 2400. In some implementations, theevent application logic URI is a URI of a resource of the othermicro-service that the platform system 2400 generates for the enrolledentity during enrollment of the entity for the other micro-service. Insome implementations, the transcoding micro-service retrievesapplication instructions from the other micro-service by providing arequest to the application logic URI, and the transcoding micro-serviceexecutes the retrieved application instructions to process the output.

Transcoding

In some implementations, the transcoding micro-service is similar to thetranscoding service described with respect to FIG. 1. In someimplementations, the transcoding micro-service is similar to thetranscoding service described with respect to the media micro-services111-113. In some implementations, the transcoding micro-service issimilar to the transcoding service described with respect to FIG. 13. Insome implementations, the transcoding micro-service is similar to thetranscoding service described with respect to the media micro-services1381-1382. In some implementations, the transcoding micro-service issimilar to the transcoding service described with respect to FIG. 21A.In some implementations, the transcoding micro-service is similar to thetranscoding service described with respect to FIG. 21B.

In some implementations, the transcoding micro-service converts betweenmedia formats. In some implementations, the transcoding micro-serviceconverts between various codecs such as, for example, Speex used inmobile operating system applications (e.g., iOS and Android), Opus usedin web and WebRTC applications, and PCMU used in PSTN and other mediaservices. In some implementations, the transcoding micro-serviceperforms any suitable codec or media transformation. In someimplementations, the transcoding micro-service translates between mediamediums such as, for example, converting a pure audio stream to a videostream or pulling the audio from a video into an audio stream.

In some implementations, the transcoding micro-service converts anactive media stream to another format. For example, a call with twoendpoints may natively use two different codecs, and the transcodingmicro-service may convert one or two of the legs of the communication toa common or compatible media stream format. In some implementations, thetranscoding micro-service converts accessed media resources that are orwill be used in a communication session. For example, the transcodingmicro-service can convert an MP3 file that is accessed from a URI to awave file for playback during a phone call. In another example, a webclient may use an OPUS codec while a mobile app may use Speex codec, andthe transcoding micro-service accepts a media stream in a first formatand outputs a media stream in a second format. In some implementations,the transcoding micro-service alters bitrate, media size or resolution,or alters any suitable aspect. In some implementations, the transcodingmicro-service provides media transformative operations such as, forexample, image, audio, or video filtering.

In some implementations, the micro-services 2421-2423 of FIG. 24Ainclude a first type of transcoding micro-service operating on a firstsoftware stack (such as, for example, FreeSWITCH) inside of an operatingsystem of a virtual machine, and a second type of transcodingmicro-service built to run in the virtual machine. In someimplementations, the first type of a transcoding micro-service is alegacy transcoding micro-service, and the second type of transcodingmicro-service is a new version of the transcoding micro-service. In someimplementations, the use of the first type of transcoding micro-serviceand the second type of transcoding micro-service is interchangeable. Insome implementations, the first type of transcoding micro-service andthe second type of transcoding micro-service are each is constructed fora particular purpose, and the use of the first type of transcodingmicro-service and the second type of transcoding micro-service is notinterchangeable. For example, in some implementations, a subset oftranscoding micro-services is constructed for audio processing and asecond subset of transcoding micro-services is constructed for videoprocessing operations.

Accounting for Use

In some implementations, accounting for use of the transcodingmicro-service includes at least one of metering time of the transcodingprocess, metering a duration of the transcoding process, metering aquantity of the transcoding process for an entity (e.g., an account)associated with the transcoding process (e.g., an account associatedwith a transcoding request). In some implementations, accounting for useof the transcoding micro-service includes metering for use of thetranscoding micro-service based on a type of the media being transcoded(e.g., video, audio, image). In some implementations, accounting for useof the transcoding micro-service includes metering for use of thetranscoding micro-service based on a type of the codec being transcoded(e.g., Speex, Opus, PCMU). In some implementations, accounting for useof the transcoding micro-service includes metering for use of thetranscoding micro-service based on a type of transcoding operation(e.g., codec translation, bit-rate compensation, resizing, and thelike). In some implementations, metering for use of a transcodingmicro-service is performed differently for different types oftranscoding micro-services. For example, the system 2400 can meter useof a first type of transcoding micro-service operating on a firstsoftware stack (such as, for example, FreeSWITCH) inside of an operatingsystem of a virtual machine differently from metering of a second typeof transcoding micro-service built to run in the virtual machine.

In some implementations, the operational services 2499 performs themetering. In some implementations, the metering and logging system 2440performs the metering. In some implementations, the transcodingmicro-service performs the metering (e.g., by using a metering andlogging layer of the transcoding micro-service that is similar to themetering layer 1313 FIG. 13). In some implementations, the operationalservices 2499 performs the metering by using a metering and logginglayer of the transcoding micro-service (e.g., a metering and logginglayer that is similar to the metering layer 1313 FIG. 13). In someimplementations, the metering and logging system 2440 performs themetering by using a metering and logging layer of the transcodingmicro-service (e.g., a metering and logging layer that is similar to themetering layer 1313 FIG. 13).

10. RECORDING MICRO-SERVICE

In some embodiments, at least one of the micro-services 2421-2423 ofFIG. 24A is a recording micro-service.

In some embodiments, a recording micro-service method that is performedat a multi-tenant media communication platform system (e.g., the system2400 of FIG. 24) is similar to the method 2600. In some embodiments, themulti-tenant media communication platform system includes a plurality ofmedia communication micro-services (e.g., 2421-2423 of FIG. 24A) andmicro-service configuration for a plurality of entities (e.g., theentities corresponding to the systems 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A, theentities depicted in FIG. 24B) configured for use of the platform system(e.g., 2400). The plurality of media communication micro-servicesinclude at least one recording micro-service. In some implementations,the recording micro-service configuration is managed by operationalservices of the platform system (e.g., the operational services 2499 ofFIG. 24A). In some implementations, the recording micro-serviceconfiguration is managed by an account system of the platform system(e.g., the account system 2430 of FIG. 24B). In some implementations,the recording micro-service configuration is managed by a policy engineof the platform system (e.g., the policy engine 2431 of FIG. 24B). Insome implementations, the recording micro-service configuration ismanaged by the recording micro-service of the platform system (e.g.,2421-2423 FIG. 24A).

The recording micro-service method includes: enrolling an entity in theplatform system (e.g., 2400), enrolling the entity comprising settingentity configuration for use of the recording micro-service by theentity (e.g., enrolling in a manner similar to the process S2610 of FIG.26); processing a recording micro-service request according to theentity configuration for the entity, the recording micro-service requestbeing a request for use of the recording micro-service on behalf of theentity (e.g., processing in a manner similar to the process S2620 ofFIG. 26); accounting for the use of the recording micro-service onbehalf of the entity (e.g., accounting for use in a manner similar tothe process S2630 of FIG. 26); and generating billing information forthe entity based on the accounting for the use of the recordingmicro-service on behalf of the entity (e.g., generating billinginformation in a manner similar to the process S2640 of FIG. 26).

The plurality of entities include at least one of a platform account,sub-account, organization, user, and service instance. Entityconfiguration is received from at least one external system via anaccount management interface, the account management interface includinga least one of an account portal user interface and an accountmanagement API. Entity configuration for the entity includesmicro-service configuration for use of the recording micro-service bythe entity. The micro-service configuration for the recordingmicro-service specifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to at leastone application logic URI, an event callback URI, and an eventapplication logic URI. In some implementations, micro-serviceconfiguration for the recording micro-service specifies at least one of:an endpoint mapping to at least one application logic URI of amicro-service of the platform system 2400, an event callback URI of amicro-service of the platform system 2400, and an event applicationlogic URI of a micro-service of the platform system 2400. In someimplementations, micro-service configuration for the recordingmicro-service specifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to at leastone application logic URI of an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG.24A), an event callback URI of an external system, and an eventapplication logic URI of an external system.

The platform system includes at least one recording micro-service APIresource for the enrolled entity.

The use of the recording micro-service includes at least one computingresource of the platform system 2400 executing computer-readableinstructions of the recording micro-service.

The platform system 2400 includes at least one regionally distributedmicro-service, and the platform system 2400 includes computing resourcesin at least two geographic regions for the regionally distributedmicro-service. The platform system 2400 (e.g., the resource managementsystem 2490 of FIG. 24A) determines computing resources for use of theregionally distributed micro-service based on a region of at least onemedia communication endpoint of media communication that uses theregionally distributed micro-service.

Input

In some implementations, the recording micro-service receives at leastone of a media stream and a reference to a media stream (e.g., a URI) asan input. In some implementations, the recording micro-service receivesthe input via the recording micro-service API (e.g., one of 2491-2493 ofFIG. 24A).

In some implementations, the recording micro-service receives the inputfrom an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, an external system of the enrolled entity provides theinput via a request to the generated recording micro-service APIresource of the recording micro-service.

In some implementations, the recording micro-service receives the inputfrom a micro-service (e.g., 2421-2423) of the platform system 2400. Insome implementations, micro-service configuration for the micro-servicethat provides the input to the recording micro-service specifies anevent callback URI of the recording micro-service. In someimplementations, the micro-service that provides the input to therecording micro-service provides the input via a recording micro-serviceAPI call to the configured event callback URI of the recordingmicro-service.

Output

In some implementations, the recording micro-service provides at leastone of a media recording resource and a reference to a media recordingresource (e.g., URI) as an output. In some implementations, therecording micro-service provides the output via the recordingmicro-service API (e.g., one of 2491-2493 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, the media recording resource is a recording of theinput received by the recording micro-service (e.g., via the recordingmicro-service API).

In some implementations, the recording micro-service provides the outputto an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, micro-service configuration for the recordingmicro-service specifies an event callback URI of the external system. Insome implementations, the recording micro-service provides the outputvia a request to the configured event callback URI of the externalsystem. In some implementations, micro-service configuration for therecording micro-service specifies an event application logic URI of theexternal system. In some implementations, the recording micro-serviceretrieves application instructions from the external system by providinga request to the application logic URI, and the recording micro-serviceexecutes the retrieved application instructions to process the output.

In some implementations, the recording micro-service provides the outputto a micro-service (e.g., 2421-2423) of the platform system 2400. Insome implementations, micro-service configuration for the recordingmicro-service specifies an event callback URI of another micro-serviceof the platform system 2400. In some implementations, the event callbackURI is a URI of a resource of the other micro-service that the platformsystem 2400 generates for the enrolled entity during enrollment of theentity for the other micro-service. In some implementations, therecording micro-service provides the output via a request to theconfigured event callback URI of the other micro-service. In someimplementations, micro-service configuration for the recordingmicro-service specifies an event application logic URI of anothermicro-service of the platform system 2400. In some implementations, theevent application logic URI is a URI of a resource of the othermicro-service that the platform system 2400 generates for the enrolledentity during enrollment of the entity for the other micro-service. Insome implementations, the recording micro-service retrieves applicationinstructions from the other micro-service by providing a request to theapplication logic URI, and the recording micro-service executes theretrieved application instructions to process the output.

Recording

In some implementations, the recording micro-service records calls. Insome implementations, the recording micro-service records communicationsessions. In some implementations, the recording micro-service performsaudio recording. In some implementations, the recording micro-serviceperforms at least one of audio recording, video recording,screen-sharing recording, multimedia recording, or any suitablerecording service. In some implementations, the recording micro-serviceperforms transcription for a recording recorded by the recordingmicro-service. In some implementations, the recording micro-serviceperforms transcription by performing automated speech recognition onmedia of a communication session (or a call). In some implementations,the recording micro-service performs automated manual transcription. Insome implementations, automated manual transcription includes therecording micro-service providing media to be transcribed (e.g., audiodata) to a human transcriber via a computing device (e.g., mobiledevice, computer, phone, etc.) of the human transcriber and processingtranscribed media received by the recording micro-service from thecomputing device of the human transcriber. In some implementations, therecording micro-service performs semi-automated transcription, whichinvolves a combination of automated speech recognition and automatedmanual transcription. In some implementations, the recordingmicro-service performs automated speech recognition to transcribe audiomedia that is recognized by the speech recognition system (or process)of the recording micro-service, and in a case where the automated speechrecognition system (or process) does not recognize at least a portion ofaudio media, the recording micro-service performs automated manualtranscription by providing the unrecognized audio media to a computingdevice (e.g., mobile device, computer, phone, etc.) of a humantranscriber and processing transcribed media received by the recordingmicro-service from the computing device of the human transcriber.

Accounting for Use

In some implementations, accounting for use of the recordingmicro-service includes at least one of metering time of the recordingprocess, metering a duration of the recording process, metering aquantity of the recording process for an entity (e.g., an account)associated with the recording process (e.g., an account associated witha recording request). In some implementations, accounting for use of therecording micro-service includes at least one of metering time of atranscribing process of the recording process, metering a duration ofthe transcribing process, metering a quantity of the transcribingprocess for an entity (e.g., an account) associated with the recordingprocess (e.g., an account associated with a recording request). In someimplementations, accounting for use of the recording micro-serviceincludes metering for use of the recording micro-service based on a typeof transcribing process (e.g., automated speech recognition, automatedmanual transcription, semi-automated transcription) performed by therecording micro-service. In some implementations, accounting for use ofthe recording micro-service includes metering for use of the recordingmicro-service based on a type of the media being recorded (e.g., video,audio, image). In some implementations, metering for use of a recordingmicro-service is performed differently for different types of recordingmicro-services.

In some implementations, the operational services 2499 performs themetering. In some implementations, the metering and logging system 2440performs the metering. In some implementations, the recordingmicro-service performs the metering (e.g., by using a metering andlogging layer of the recording micro-service that is similar to themetering layer 1313 FIG. 13). In some implementations, the operationalservices 2499 performs the metering by using a metering and logginglayer of the recording micro-service (e.g., a metering and logging layerthat is similar to the metering layer 1313 FIG. 13). In someimplementations, the metering and logging system 2440 performs themetering by using a metering and logging layer of the recordingmicro-service (e.g., a metering and logging layer that is similar to themetering layer 1313 FIG. 13).

11. TEXT-TO-SPEECH

In some embodiments, at least one of the micro-services 2421-2423 ofFIG. 24A is a text-to-speech (TTS) micro-service.

In some embodiments, a TTS micro-service method that is performed at amulti-tenant media communication platform system (e.g., the system 2400of FIG. 24) is similar to the method 2600. In some embodiments, themulti-tenant media communication platform system includes a plurality ofmedia communication micro-services (e.g., 2421-2423 of FIG. 24A) andmicro-service configuration for a plurality of entities (e.g., theentities corresponding to the systems 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A, theentities depicted in FIG. 24B) configured for use of the platform system(e.g., 2400). The plurality of media communication micro-servicesinclude at least one TTS micro-service. In some implementations, the TTSmicro-service configuration is managed by operational services of theplatform system (e.g., the operational services 2499 of FIG. 24A). Insome implementations, the TTS micro-service configuration is managed byan account system of the platform system (e.g., the account system 2430of FIG. 24B). In some implementations, the TTS micro-serviceconfiguration is managed by a policy engine of the platform system(e.g., the policy engine 2431 of FIG. 24B). In some implementations, theTTS micro-service configuration is managed by the TTS micro-service ofthe platform system (e.g., 2421-2423 FIG. 24A).

The TTS micro-service method includes: enrolling an entity in theplatform system (e.g., 2400), enrolling the entity comprising settingentity configuration for use of the TTS micro-service by the entity(e.g., enrolling in a manner similar to the process S2610 of FIG. 26);processing a TTS micro-service request according to the entityconfiguration for the entity, the TTS micro-service request being arequest for use of the TTS micro-service on behalf of the entity (e.g.,processing in a manner similar to the process S2620 of FIG. 26);accounting for the use of the TTS micro-service on behalf of the entity(e.g., accounting for use in a manner similar to the process S2630 ofFIG. 26); and generating billing information for the entity based on theaccounting for the use of the TTS micro-service on behalf of the entity(e.g., generating billing information in a manner similar to the processS2640 of FIG. 26).

The plurality of entities include at least one of a platform account,sub-account, organization, user, and service instance. Entityconfiguration is received from at least one external system via anaccount management interface, the account management interface includinga least one of an account portal user interface and an accountmanagement API. Entity configuration for the entity includesmicro-service configuration for use of the TTS micro-service by theentity. The micro-service configuration for the TTS micro-servicespecifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to at least oneapplication logic URI, an event callback URI, and an event applicationlogic URI. In some implementations, micro-service configuration for theTTS micro-service specifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to atleast one application logic URI of a micro-service of the platformsystem 2400, an event callback URI of a micro-service of the platformsystem 2400, and an event application logic URI of a micro-service ofthe platform system 2400. In some implementations, micro-serviceconfiguration for the TTS micro-service specifies at least one of: anendpoint mapping to at least one application logic URI of an externalsystem (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A), an event callback URI of anexternal system, and an event application logic URI of an externalsystem.

The platform system includes at least one TTS micro-service API resourcefor the enrolled entity.

The use of the TTS micro-service includes at least one computingresource of the platform system 2400 executing computer-readableinstructions of the TTS micro-service.

The platform system 2400 includes at least one regionally distributedmicro-service, and the platform system 2400 includes computing resourcesin at least two geographic regions for the regionally distributedmicro-service. The platform system 2400 (e.g., the resource managementsystem 2490 of FIG. 24A) determines computing resources for use of theregionally distributed micro-service based on a region of at least onemedia communication endpoint of media communication that uses theregionally distributed micro-service.

Input

In some implementations, the TTS micro-service receives at least one oftext data and a reference to a text data (e.g., a URI) as an input. Insome implementations, the TTS micro-service receives the input via theTTS micro-service API (e.g., one of 2491-2493 of FIG. 24A).

In some implementations, the TTS micro-service receives the input froman external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, an external system of the enrolled entity provides theinput via a request to the generated TTS micro-service API resource ofthe TTS micro-service.

In some implementations, the TTS micro-service receives the input from amicro-service (e.g., 2421-2423) of the platform system 2400. In someimplementations, micro-service configuration for the micro-service thatprovides the input to the TTS micro-service specifies an event callbackURI of the TTS micro-service. In some implementations, the micro-servicethat provides the input to the TTS micro-service provides the input viaa TTS micro-service API call to the configured event callback URI of theTTS micro-service.

Output

In some implementations, the TTS micro-service provides at least one ofa media resource, a reference to a media resource (e.g., URI), a mediastream, and a reference to a media stream (e.g., URI) as an output. Insome implementations, the TTS micro-service provides the output via theTTS micro-service API (e.g., one of 2491-2493 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, the media resource is an audible speech recordingcorresponding to the text input received by the TTS micro-service (e.g.,via the TTS micro-service API). In some implementations, the mediastream is a media stream (e.g., audio stream, video stream) thatincludes audible speech corresponding to the text input received by theTTS micro-service (e.g., via the TTS micro-service API).

In some implementations, the TTS micro-service provides the output to anexternal system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A). In some implementations,micro-service configuration for the TTS micro-service specifies an eventcallback URI of the external system. In some implementations, the TTSmicro-service provides the output via a request to the configured eventcallback URI of the external system. In some implementations,micro-service configuration for the TTS micro-service specifies an eventapplication logic URI of the external system. In some implementations,the TTS micro-service retrieves application instructions from theexternal system by providing a request to the application logic URI, andthe TTS micro-service executes the retrieved application instructions toprocess the output.

In some implementations, the TTS micro-service provides the output to amicro-service (e.g., 2421-2423) of the platform system 2400. In someimplementations, micro-service configuration for the TTS micro-servicespecifies an event callback URI of another micro-service of the platformsystem 2400. In some implementations, the event callback URI is a URI ofa resource of the other micro-service that the platform system 2400generates for the enrolled entity during enrollment of the entity forthe other micro-service. In some implementations, the TTS micro-serviceprovides the output via a request to the configured event callback URIof the other micro-service. In some implementations, micro-serviceconfiguration for the TTS micro-service specifies an event applicationlogic URI of another micro-service of the platform system 2400. In someimplementations, the event application logic URI is a URI of a resourceof the other micro-service that the platform system 2400 generates forthe enrolled entity during enrollment of the entity for the othermicro-service. In some implementations, the TTS micro-service retrievesapplication instructions from the other micro-service by providing arequest to the application logic URI, and the TTS micro-service executesthe retrieved application instructions to process the output.

Text-to-Speech

In some implementations, the text-to-speech micro-service converts textinto audible speech, and the audible speech is played within acommunication stream of the system 2400. In some implementations, thetext-to-speech micro-service generates audible speech from text providedto (or accessed by) the text-to-speech micro-service, and the audiblespeech is played within a communication stream of the system 2400. Insome implementations, a phone call connects to a telephony applicationthat specifies a script that should be read to the caller. In someimplementations, the script is directed to the text-to-speechmicro-service to be played during the phone call. In someimplementations, the text-to-speech micro-service is used for audiocommunication. In some implementations, the script is directed to thetext-to-speech micro-service to be played during the phone call. In someimplementations, the text-to-speech micro-service is used for videocommunication by playing audible speech within a computer-generatedvideo simulation or rendering of a speaker of the video communication.In some implementations, the text-to-speech micro-service receives (oraccesses) text as an input and outputs an audio stream that is played ormixed in with the communication session.

Accounting for Use

In some implementations, accounting for use of the TTS micro-serviceincludes at least one of metering time of the TTS process, metering aduration of the TTS process, metering a quantity of the TTS process(e.g., number of words, etc.) for an entity (e.g., an account)associated with the TTS process (e.g., an account associated with a TTSrequest). In some implementations, accounting for use of the recordingmicro-service includes metering for use of the TTS micro-service basedon a type of the communication session (e.g., video communicationsession, audio communication session, image communication session). Insome implementations, metering for use of a TTS micro-service isperformed differently for different types of TTS micro-services. In someimplementations, accounting for use of the TTS micro-service includesmetering for use of the TTS micro-service based on a media format of theaudible speech (speaker voice, use of multiple speaker voices fordifferent portions of text, media format of audible speech, bitrate ofaudible speech media, etc.). In some implementations, an entityrequesting use of the TTS micro-service specifies a speaker voice (e.g.,a speaker having a specified sex, e.g., male or female, age, regionalaccent, and the like) for the audible speech, and accounting for use ofthe TTS micro-service includes metering for use of the TTS micro-servicebased on the specified speaker voice for the audible speech. In someimplementations, an entity requesting use of the TTS micro-servicespecifies a speaker voice for different portions of the text to bespoken, and accounting for use of the TTS micro-service includesmetering for use of the TTS micro-service based on the use of multiplespeaker voices for the audible speech. In some implementations, anentity requesting use of the TTS micro-service specifies a speaker voice(e.g., a speaker having a specified sex, e.g., male or female, age,regional accent, and the like) for the audible speech, and accountingfor use of the TTS micro-service includes metering for use of the TTSmicro-service based on the specified speaker voice for the audiblespeech.

In some implementations, an entity requesting use of the TTSmicro-service specifies a specific speaker voice to be used for theaudible speech, and accounting for use of the TTS micro-service includesmetering for use of the TTS micro-service based on the use of aspecified speaker voice. In some implementations, an entity requestinguse of the TTS micro-service specifies a specific speaker voice byproviding a speaker voice model that includes parameters for generatingaudible speech having specified characteristics. In someimplementations, an entity requesting use of the TTS micro-servicespecifies a specific speaker voice by providing an identifier thatidentifies an individual whose voice should be imitated for thegeneration of the audible speech. In some implementations, an entityrequesting use of the TTS micro-service specifies that identifies anindividual who should read the text to generate the audible speech. Insome implementations, the entity requesting the use of the TTSmicro-service can specify a voice actor (e.g., a celebrity, publicfigure, professional commercial actor, etc.) to read text to be used togenerate the audible speech, and the TTS micro-service provides the textto be spoken to a computing device (e.g., mobile device, computer,phone, etc.) of a human (e.g., a voice actor) and processes audiblespeech media received from the computing device of the human, the humanusing the computing device (or another computing device) to record thehuman's reading of the text.

In some implementations, the operational services 2499 performs themetering. In some implementations, the metering and logging system 2440performs the metering. In some implementations, the TTS micro-serviceperforms the metering (e.g., by using a metering and logging layer ofthe TTS micro-service that is similar to the metering layer 1313 FIG.13). In some implementations, the operational services 2499 performs themetering by using a metering and logging layer of the TTS micro-service(e.g., a metering and logging layer that is similar to the meteringlayer 1313 FIG. 13). In some implementations, the metering and loggingsystem 2440 performs the metering by using a metering and logging layerof the TTS micro-service (e.g., a metering and logging layer that issimilar to the metering layer 1313 FIG. 13).

12. SPEECH DETECTION

In some embodiments, at least one of the micro-services 2421-2423 ofFIG. 24A is a speech detection (recognition) micro-service.

In some embodiments, a speech detection micro-service method that isperformed at a multi-tenant media communication platform system (e.g.,the system 2400 of FIG. 24) is similar to the method 2600. In someembodiments, the multi-tenant media communication platform systemincludes a plurality of media communication micro-services (e.g.,2421-2423 of FIG. 24A) and micro-service configuration for a pluralityof entities (e.g., the entities corresponding to the systems 2451-2455of FIG. 24A, the entities depicted in FIG. 24B) configured for use ofthe platform system (e.g., 2400). The plurality of media communicationmicro-services includes at least one speech detection micro-service. Insome implementations, the speech detection micro-service configurationis managed by operational services of the platform system (e.g., theoperational services 2499 of FIG. 24A). In some implementations, thespeech detection micro-service configuration is managed by an accountsystem of the platform system (e.g., the account system 2430 of FIG.24B). In some implementations, the speech detection micro-serviceconfiguration is managed by a policy engine of the platform system(e.g., the policy engine 2431 of FIG. 24B). In some implementations, thespeech detection micro-service configuration is managed by the speechdetection micro-service of the platform system (e.g., 2421-2423 FIG.24A).

The speech detection micro-service method includes: enrolling an entityin the platform system (e.g., 2400), enrolling the entity comprisingsetting entity configuration for use of the speech detectionmicro-service by the entity (e.g., enrolling in a manner similar to theprocess S2610 of FIG. 26); processing a speech detection micro-servicerequest according to the entity configuration for the entity, the speechdetection micro-service request being a request for use of the speechdetection micro-service on behalf of the entity (e.g., processing in amanner similar to the process S2620 of FIG. 26); accounting for the useof the speech detection micro-service on behalf of the entity (e.g.,accounting for use in a manner similar to the process S2630 of FIG. 26);and generating billing information for the entity based on theaccounting for the use of the speech detection micro-service on behalfof the entity (e.g., generating billing information in a manner similarto the process S2640 of FIG. 26).

The plurality of entities include at least one of a platform account,sub-account, organization, user, and service instance. Entityconfiguration is received from at least one external system via anaccount management interface, the account management interface includinga least one of an account portal user interface and an accountmanagement API. Entity configuration for the entity includesmicro-service configuration for use of the speech detectionmicro-service by the entity. The micro-service configuration for thespeech detection micro-service specifies at least one of: an endpointmapping to at least one application logic URI, an event callback URI,and an event application logic URI. In some implementations,micro-service configuration for the speech detection micro-servicespecifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to at least oneapplication logic URI of a micro-service of the platform system 2400, anevent callback URI of a micro-service of the platform system 2400, andan event application logic URI of a micro-service of the platform system2400. In some implementations, micro-service configuration for thespeech detection micro-service specifies at least one of: an endpointmapping to at least one application logic URI of an external system(e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A), an event callback URI of an externalsystem, and an event application logic URI of an external system.

The platform system includes at least one speech detection micro-serviceAPI resource for the enrolled entity.

The use of the speech detection micro-service includes at least onecomputing resource of the platform system 2400 executingcomputer-readable instructions of the speech detection micro-service.

The platform system 2400 includes at least one regionally distributedmicro-service, and the platform system 2400 includes computing resourcesin at least two geographic regions for the regionally distributedmicro-service. The platform system 2400 (e.g., the resource managementsystem 2490 of FIG. 24A) determines computing resources for use of theregionally distributed micro-service based on a region of at least onemedia communication endpoint of media communication that uses theregionally distributed micro-service.

Input

In some implementations, the speech detection micro-service receives atleast one of a media resource, a reference to a media resource (e.g., aURI), a media stream, and a reference to a media stream (e.g., a URI) asan input. In some implementations, the speech detection micro-servicereceives the input via the speech detection micro-service API (e.g., oneof 2491-2493 of FIG. 24A).

In some implementations, the speech detection micro-service receives theinput from an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, an external system of the enrolled entity provides theinput via a request to the generated speech detection micro-service APIresource of the speech detection micro-service.

In some implementations, the speech detection micro-service receives theinput from a micro-service (e.g., 2421-2423) of the platform system2400. In some implementations, micro-service configuration for themicro-service that provides the input to the speech detectionmicro-service specifies an event callback URI of the speech detectionmicro-service. In some implementations, the micro-service that providesthe input to the speech detection micro-service provides the input via aspeech detection micro-service API call to the configured event callbackURI of the speech detection micro-service.

Output

In some implementations, the speech detection micro-service provides atleast one of speech detection results (e.g., detected keywords, a datafile, parameters, and the like) and a reference to speech detectionresults (e.g., URI) as an output. In some implementations, the speechdetection micro-service provides the output via the speech detectionmicro-service API (e.g., one of 2491-2493 of FIG. 24A).

In some implementations, the speech detection micro-service provides theoutput to an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, micro-service configuration for the speech detectionmicro-service specifies an event callback URI of the external system. Insome implementations, the speech detection micro-service provides theoutput via a request to the configured event callback URI of theexternal system. In some implementations, micro-service configurationfor the speech detection micro-service specifies an event applicationlogic URI of the external system. In some implementations, the speechdetection micro-service retrieves application instructions from theexternal system by providing a request to the application logic URI, andthe speech detection micro-service executes the retrieved applicationinstructions to process the output.

In some implementations, the speech detection micro-service provides theoutput to a micro-service (e.g., 2421-2423) of the platform system 2400.In some implementations, micro-service configuration for the speechdetection micro-service specifies an event callback URI of anothermicro-service of the platform system 2400. In some implementations, theevent callback URI is a URI of a resource of the other micro-servicethat the platform system 2400 generates for the enrolled entity duringenrollment of the entity for the other micro-service. In someimplementations, the speech detection micro-service provides the outputvia a request to the configured event callback URI of the othermicro-service. In some implementations, micro-service configuration forthe speech detection micro-service specifies an event application logicURI of another micro-service of the platform system 2400. In someimplementations, the event application logic URI is a URI of a resourceof the other micro-service that the platform system 2400 generates forthe enrolled entity during enrollment of the entity for the othermicro-service. In some implementations, the speech detectionmicro-service retrieves application instructions from the othermicro-service by providing a request to the application logic URI, andthe speech detection micro-service executes the retrieved applicationinstructions to process the output.

Speech Detection

In some implementations, the speech detection micro-service collectsspoken input and converts the spoken input into a format for at leastone of transcription, natural language processing, and interpretation ofresponses. In some implementations, the speech detection micro-serviceuses the transcription micro-service described above. In someimplementations, input to the speech detection micro-service is an audiostream and parameters of speech recognition.

In some implementations, the speech detection micro-service detectspresence of audible speech in an audio stream. In some implementations,the speech detection micro-service detects presence determines whether amedia communication contains audio data of human speech. As an example,the speech detection micro-service can determine when a human has joineda conference call by detecting presence of audible speech in audio mediaof the media communication. As an example, the speech detectionmicro-service can determine when a human associated with a destinationcommunication endpoint of a voice communication session has accepted thevoice communication session by detecting presence of audible speech inthe audio media of the media communication.

In some implementations, the speech detection micro-service performsanswering machine detection for a media communication session. In someimplementations, the speech detection micro-service performs answeringmachine detection by detecting presence of an audio signal (e.g., thetone or beep that prompts the caller to leave a message) thatcorresponds to an answering machine in the audio media of the mediacommunication session. In some implementations, the speech detectionmicro-service performs answering machine detection by performing aconventional answering machine detection process for determining whethera voice communication session has been established with an answeringmachine rather than a human (e.g., determining whether an answeringmachine or a human has answered the voice call).

Accounting for Use

In some implementations, accounting for use of the speech detectionmicro-service includes at least one of metering time of the speechdetection process, metering a duration of the speech detection process,metering a quantity of the speech detection process for an entity (e.g.,an account) associated with the speech detection process (e.g., anaccount associated with a speech detection request). In someimplementations, accounting for use of the speech detectionmicro-service includes at least one of metering time of a transcribingprocess of the speech detection process, metering a duration of thetranscribing process, metering a quantity of the transcribing processfor an entity (e.g., an account) associated with the speech detectionprocess (e.g., an account associated with a speech detection request).In some implementations, accounting for use of the speech detectionmicro-service includes metering for use of the speech detectionmicro-service based on a type of transcribing process (e.g., automatedspeech recognition, automated manual transcription, semi-automatedtranscription) performed by the speech detection micro-service. In someimplementations, accounting for use of the speech detectionmicro-service includes metering for use of the speech detectionmicro-service based on a type of the media (e.g., video, audio). In someimplementations, metering for use of a speech detection micro-service isperformed differently for different types of speech detectionmicro-services. In some implementations, an entity requesting use of thespeech detection micro-service configures the speech detectionmicro-service to detect specified words (or phases) in speech, andmetering for use of a speech detection micro-service is performed basedon a number of words (or phrases) specified in the configuration. Insome implementations, an entity requesting use of the speech detectionmicro-service configures the speech detection micro-service to detectspeech from at least one specified individual, and metering for use of aspeech detection micro-service is performed based on a number ofindividuals (whose speech is to be detected) specified in theconfiguration.

In some implementations, the operational services 2499 performs themetering. In some implementations, the metering and logging system 2440performs the metering. In some implementations, the speech detectionmicro-service performs the metering (e.g., by using a metering andlogging layer of the speech detection micro-service that is similar tothe metering layer 1313 FIG. 13). In some implementations, theoperational services 2499 performs the metering by using a metering andlogging layer of the speech detection micro-service (e.g., a meteringand logging layer that is similar to the metering layer 1313 FIG. 13).In some implementations, the metering and logging system 2440 performsthe metering by using a metering and logging layer of the speechdetection micro-service (e.g., a metering and logging layer that issimilar to the metering layer 1313 FIG. 13).

13. CONFERENCING

In some embodiments, at least one of the micro-services 2421-2423 ofFIG. 24A is a conferencing micro-service.

In some embodiments, a conferencing micro-service method that isperformed at a multi-tenant media communication platform system (e.g.,the system 2400 of FIG. 24) is similar to the method 2600. In someembodiments, the multi-tenant media communication platform systemincludes a plurality of media communication micro-services (e.g.,2421-2423 of FIG. 24A) and micro-service configuration for a pluralityof entities (e.g., the entities corresponding to the systems 2451-2455of FIG. 24A, the entities depicted in FIG. 24B) configured for use ofthe platform system (e.g., 2400). The plurality of media communicationmicro-services include at least one conferencing micro-service. In someimplementations, the conferencing micro-service configuration is managedby operational services of the platform system (e.g., the operationalservices 2499 of FIG. 24A). In some implementations, the conferencingmicro-service configuration is managed by an account system of theplatform system (e.g., the account system 2430 of FIG. 24B). In someimplementations, the conferencing micro-service configuration is managedby a policy engine of the platform system (e.g., the policy engine 2431of FIG. 24B). In some implementations, the conferencing micro-serviceconfiguration is managed by the conferencing micro-service of theplatform system (e.g., 2421-2423 FIG. 24A).

The conferencing micro-service method includes: enrolling an entity inthe platform system (e.g., 2400), enrolling the entity comprisingsetting entity configuration for use of the conferencing micro-serviceby the entity (e.g., enrolling in a manner similar to the process S2610of FIG. 26); processing a conferencing micro-service request accordingto the entity configuration for the entity, the conferencingmicro-service request being a request for use of the conferencingmicro-service on behalf of the entity (e.g., processing in a mannersimilar to the process S2620 of FIG. 26); accounting for the use of theconferencing micro-service on behalf of the entity (e.g., accounting foruse in a manner similar to the process S2630 of FIG. 26); and generatingbilling information for the entity based on the accounting for the useof the conferencing micro-service on behalf of the entity (e.g.,generating billing information in a manner similar to the process S2640of FIG. 26).

The plurality of entities include at least one of a platform account,sub-account, organization, user, and service instance. Entityconfiguration is received from at least one external system via anaccount management interface, the account management interface includinga least one of an account portal user interface and an accountmanagement API. Entity configuration for the entity includesmicro-service configuration for use of the conferencing micro-service bythe entity. The micro-service configuration for the conferencingmicro-service specifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to at leastone application logic URI, an event callback URI, and an eventapplication logic URI. In some implementations, micro-serviceconfiguration for the conferencing micro-service specifies at least oneof: an endpoint mapping to at least one application logic URI of amicro-service of the platform system 2400, an event callback URI of amicro-service of the platform system 2400, and an event applicationlogic URI of a micro-service of the platform system 2400. In someimplementations, micro-service configuration for the conferencingmicro-service specifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to at leastone application logic URI of an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG.24A), an event callback URI of an external system, and an eventapplication logic URI of an external system.

The platform system includes at least one conferencing micro-service APIresource for the enrolled entity.

The use of the conferencing micro-service includes at least onecomputing resource of the platform system 2400 executingcomputer-readable instructions of the conferencing micro-service.

The platform system 2400 includes at least one regionally distributedmicro-service, and the platform system 2400 includes computing resourcesin at least two geographic regions for the regionally distributedmicro-service. The platform system 2400 (e.g., the resource managementsystem 2490 of FIG. 24A) determines computing resources for use of theregionally distributed micro-service based on a region of at least onemedia communication endpoint of media communication that uses theregionally distributed micro-service. In some implementations, theconferencing micro-service is a regionally distributed micro-service.

Input

In some implementations, the conferencing micro-service receives atleast conference parameters as an input. In some implementations,conference parameters include at one of information for conference callparticipants (e.g., communication endpoint information for eachconference call participant), information for a conference callorganizer (e.g., an identifier of an entity that manages the conference,such as for example, one of the Entities A-E of FIG. 24A), a time of theconference call, a duration of the conference call, and any othersuitable conference call parameters. In some implementations, theconferencing micro-service receives media streams for each communicationendpoint of the conference call as an input. In some implementations,the conferencing micro-service receives the input via the conferencingmicro-service API (e.g., one of 2491-2493 of FIG. 24A).

In some implementations, the conferencing micro-service receives theinput from an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, an external system of the enrolled entity provides theinput via a request to the generated conferencing micro-service APIresource of the conferencing micro-service.

In some implementations, the conferencing micro-service receives theinput from a micro-service (e.g., 2421-2423) of the platform system2400. In some implementations, the conferencing micro-service receivesthe input from a signaling micro-service of the platform system 2400. Insome implementations, micro-service configuration for the micro-servicethat provides the input to the conferencing micro-service specifies anevent callback URI of the conferencing micro-service. In someimplementations, the micro-service that provides the input to theconferencing micro-service provides the input via a conferencingmicro-service API call to the configured event callback URI of theconferencing micro-service.

Output

In some implementations, the conferencing micro-service provides atleast one of a conference media stream and a reference to a conferencemedia stream (e.g., URI) as an output. In some implementations, theconferencing micro-service provides the output via the conferencingmicro-service API (e.g., one of 2491-2493 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, the conference media stream is a media stream resultingfrom mixing participant media streams (e.g., call audio from eachparticipant) received by the conferencing micro-service (e.g., receivedby the conferencing micro-micro-service API).

In some implementations, the conferencing micro-service provides theoutput to an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, micro-service configuration for the conferencingmicro-service specifies an event callback URI of the external system. Insome implementations, the conferencing micro-service provides the outputvia a request to the configured event callback URI of the externalsystem. In some implementations, micro-service configuration for theconferencing micro-service specifies an event application logic URI ofthe external system. In some implementations, the conferencingmicro-service retrieves application instructions from the externalsystem by providing a request to the application logic URI, and theconferencing micro-service executes the retrieved applicationinstructions to process the output.

In some implementations, the conferencing micro-service provides theoutput to a micro-service (e.g., 2421-2423) of the platform system 2400.In some implementations, micro-service configuration for theconferencing micro-service specifies an event callback URI of anothermicro-service of the platform system 2400. In some implementations, theevent callback URI is a URI of a resource of the other micro-servicethat the platform system 2400 generates for the enrolled entity duringenrollment of the entity for the other micro-service. In someimplementations, the conferencing micro-service provides the output viaa request to the configured event callback URI of the othermicro-service. In some implementations, micro-service configuration forthe conferencing micro-service specifies an event application logic URIof another micro-service of the platform system 2400. In someimplementations, the event application logic URI is a URI of a resourceof the other micro-service that the platform system 2400 generates forthe enrolled entity during enrollment of the entity for the othermicro-service. In some implementations, the conferencing micro-serviceretrieves application instructions from the other micro-service byproviding a request to the application logic URI, and the conferencingmicro-service executes the retrieved application instructions to processthe output.

Conferencing

In some implementations, the conferencing micro-service facilitatesconference calls with more than two endpoints connected. In someimplementations, the conferencing micro-service receives media streams(e.g., audio media streams for an audio conference) from each endpointof the conference call (e.g., outgoing audio media provided by endpointdevices of the conference call endpoints), and mixes the received mediastreams to generate an output media stream that is provided by theconferencing micro-service to each endpoint of the conference call(e.g., via endpoint devices of the endpoints). In some implementations,the conferencing micro-service uses a plurality of mixing resources toperform the mixing. In some implementations, the conferencingmicro-service uses a plurality of mixing resources to perform localizedmixing, and the conferencing micro-service mixes audio of endpoints in asame geographic region by using a mixing resource located near theendpoints.

In some implementations, the conferencing micro-service mixes audio foraudio communication sessions. In some implementations, the conferencingmicro-service mixes audio for video communication sessions.

Accounting for Use

In some implementations, accounting for use of the conferencingmicro-service includes at least one of metering time of the conferencingprocess, metering a duration of the conferencing process, metering aquantity of the conferencing process for an entity (e.g., an account)associated with the conferencing process (e.g., an account associatedwith a conferencing request). In some implementations, accounting foruse of the conferencing micro-service includes metering for use of theconferencing micro-service based on a number of communication endpointsof the conference call. In some implementations, accounting for use ofthe conferencing micro-service includes metering for use of theconferencing micro-service based on a number of mixing resources usedfor the conference call. In some implementations, accounting for use ofthe conferencing micro-service includes metering for use of theconferencing micro-service based on locations of mixing resources usedfor the conference call. In some implementations, metering for use of aconferencing micro-service is performed differently for different typesof conferencing micro-services.

In some implementations, the operational services 2499 performs themetering. In some implementations, the metering and logging system 2440performs the metering. In some implementations, the conferencingmicro-service performs the metering (e.g., by using a metering andlogging layer of the conferencing micro-service that is similar to themetering layer 1313 FIG. 13). In some implementations, the operationalservices 2499 performs the metering by using a metering and logginglayer of the conferencing micro-service (e.g., a metering and logginglayer that is similar to the metering layer 1313 FIG. 13). In someimplementations, the metering and logging system 2440 performs themetering by using a metering and logging layer of the conferencingmicro-service (e.g., a metering and logging layer that is similar to themetering layer 1313 FIG. 13).

14. MIXING

In some embodiments, at least one of the micro-services 2421-2423 ofFIG. 24A is a mixing micro-service.

In some embodiments, a mixing micro-service method that is performed ata multi-tenant media communication platform system (e.g., the system2400 of FIG. 24) is similar to the method 2600. In some embodiments, themulti-tenant media communication platform system includes a plurality ofmedia communication micro-services (e.g., 2421-2423 of FIG. 24A) andmicro-service configuration for a plurality of entities (e.g., theentities corresponding to the systems 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A, theentities depicted in FIG. 24B) configured for use of the platform system(e.g., 2400). The plurality of media communication micro-servicesincludes at least one mixing micro-service. In some implementations, themixing micro-service configuration is managed by operational services ofthe platform system (e.g., the operational services 2499 of FIG. 24A).In some implementations, the mixing micro-service configuration ismanaged by an account system of the platform system (e.g., the accountsystem 2430 of FIG. 24B). In some implementations, the mixingmicro-service configuration is managed by a policy engine of theplatform system (e.g., the policy engine 2431 of FIG. 24B). In someimplementations, the mixing micro-service configuration is managed bythe mixing micro-service of the platform system (e.g., 2421-2423 FIG.24A).

The mixing micro-service method includes: enrolling an entity in theplatform system (e.g., 2400), enrolling the entity comprising settingentity configuration for use of the mixing micro-service by the entity(e.g., enrolling in a manner similar to the process S2610 of FIG. 26);processing a mixing micro-service request according to the entityconfiguration for the entity, the mixing micro-service request being arequest for use of the mixing micro-service on behalf of the entity(e.g., processing in a manner similar to the process S2620 of FIG. 26);accounting for the use of the mixing micro-service on behalf of theentity (e.g., accounting for use in a manner similar to the processS2630 of FIG. 26); and generating billing information for the entitybased on the accounting for the use of the mixing micro-service onbehalf of the entity (e.g., generating billing information in a mannersimilar to the process S2640 of FIG. 26).

The plurality of entities include at least one of a platform account,sub-account, organization, user, and service instance. Entityconfiguration is received from at least one external system via anaccount management interface, the account management interface includinga least one of an account portal user interface and an accountmanagement API. Entity configuration for the entity includesmicro-service configuration for use of the mixing micro-service by theentity. The micro-service configuration for the mixing micro-servicespecifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to at least oneapplication logic URI, an event callback URI, and an event applicationlogic URI. In some implementations, micro-service configuration for themixing micro-service specifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping toat least one application logic URI of a micro-service of the platformsystem 2400, an event callback URI of a micro-service of the platformsystem 2400, and an event application logic URI of a micro-service ofthe platform system 2400. In some implementations, micro-serviceconfiguration for the mixing micro-service specifies at least one of: anendpoint mapping to at least one application logic URI of an externalsystem (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A), an event callback URI of anexternal system, and an event application logic URI of an externalsystem.

The platform system includes at least one mixing micro-service APIresource for the enrolled entity.

The use of the mixing micro-service includes at least one computingresource of the platform system 2400 executing computer-readableinstructions of the mixing micro-service.

The platform system 2400 includes at least one regionally distributedmicro-service, and the platform system 2400 includes computing resourcesin at least two geographic regions for the regionally distributedmicro-service. The platform system 2400 (e.g., the resource managementsystem 2490 of FIG. 24A) determines computing resources for use of theregionally distributed micro-service based on a region of at least onemedia communication endpoint of media communication that uses theregionally distributed micro-service.

Input

In some implementations, the mixing micro-service receives at least oneof a media stream and a reference to a media stream (e.g., a URI) as aninput. In some implementations, the mixing micro-service receives theinput via the mixing micro-service API (e.g., one of 2491-2493 of FIG.24A).

In some implementations, the mixing micro-service receives the inputfrom an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, an external system of the enrolled entity provides theinput via a request to the generated mixing micro-service API resourceof the mixing micro-service.

In some implementations, the mixing micro-service receives the inputfrom a micro-service (e.g., 2421-2423) of the platform system 2400. Insome implementations, micro-service configuration for the micro-servicethat provides the input to the mixing micro-service specifies an eventcallback URI of the mixing micro-service. In some implementations, themicro-service that provides the input to the mixing micro-serviceprovides the input via a mixing micro-service API call to the configuredevent callback URI of the mixing micro-service.

Output

In some implementations, the mixing micro-service provides at least oneof a mixed media stream and a reference to a mixed media stream (e.g.,URI) as an output. In some implementations, the mixing micro-serviceprovides the output via the mixing micro-service API (e.g., one of2491-2493 of FIG. 24A). In some implementations, the mixed media streamis a media stream that results from mixing of each input media streamreceived by the mixing micro-service (e.g., via the mixing micro-serviceAPI).

In some implementations, the mixing micro-service provides the output toan external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, micro-service configuration for the mixingmicro-service specifies an event callback URI of the external system. Insome implementations, the mixing micro-service provides the output via arequest to the configured event callback URI of the external system. Insome implementations, micro-service configuration for the mixingmicro-service specifies an event application logic URI of the externalsystem. In some implementations, the mixing micro-service retrievesapplication instructions from the external system by providing a requestto the application logic URI, and the mixing micro-service executes theretrieved application instructions to process the output.

In some implementations, the mixing micro-service provides the output toa micro-service (e.g., 2421-2423) of the platform system 2400. In someimplementations, micro-service configuration for the mixingmicro-service specifies an event callback URI of another micro-serviceof the platform system 2400. In some implementations, the event callbackURI is a URI of a resource of the other micro-service that the platformsystem 2400 generates for the enrolled entity during enrollment of theentity for the other micro-service. In some implementations, the mixingmicro-service provides the output via a request to the configured eventcallback URI of the other micro-service. In some implementations,micro-service configuration for the mixing micro-service specifies anevent application logic URI of another micro-service of the platformsystem 2400. In some implementations, the event application logic URI isa URI of a resource of the other micro-service that the platform system2400 generates for the enrolled entity during enrollment of the entityfor the other micro-service. In some implementations, the mixingmicro-service retrieves application instructions from the othermicro-service by providing a request to the application logic URI, andthe mixing micro-service executes the retrieved application instructionsto process the output.

Mixing

In some implementations, the mixing micro-service is similar to theconferencing micro-service described above for FIG. 33. In someimplementations, the mixes an audio stream of a communication session(e.g., audio of a voice communication session, audio of a videocommunication session) with an audio stream of a media resource (e.g.,audio of an audio file, audio of a video file. For example, the mixingmicro-service can mix an audio stream of a live or pre-recorded event(e.g., a presidential speech, an earnings call, a concert, and the like)with an audio stream of a communication session.

Accounting for Use

In some implementations, accounting for use of the mixing micro-serviceincludes at least one of metering time of the mixing process, metering aduration of the mixing process, metering a quantity of the mixingprocess for an entity (e.g., an account) associated with the mixingprocess (e.g., an account associated with a mixing request). In someimplementations, accounting for use of the mixing micro-service includesmetering for use of the mixing micro-service based on a number of mediaresources mixed. In some implementations, accounting for use of themixing micro-service includes metering for use of the mixingmicro-service based on a type of media resources mixed. In someimplementations, accounting for use of the mixing micro-service includesmetering for use of the mixing micro-service based on the specific mediaresources mixed. In some implementations, accounting for use of themixing micro-service includes metering for use of the mixingmicro-service based on a number of mixing resources used. In someimplementations, accounting for use of the mixing micro-service includesmetering for use of the mixing micro-service based on locations ofmixing resources used. In some implementations, metering for use of amixing micro-service is performed differently for different types ofmixing micro-services.

In some implementations, the operational services 2499 performs themetering. In some implementations, the metering and logging system 2440performs the metering. In some implementations, the mixing micro-serviceperforms the metering (e.g., by using a metering and logging layer ofthe mixing micro-service that is similar to the metering layer 1313 FIG.13). In some implementations, the operational services 2499 performs themetering by using a metering and logging layer of the mixingmicro-service (e.g., a metering and logging layer that is similar to themetering layer 1313 FIG. 13). In some implementations, the metering andlogging system 2440 performs the metering by using a metering andlogging layer of the mixing micro-service (e.g., a metering and logginglayer that is similar to the metering layer 1313 FIG. 13).

In some implementations, a mixing micro-service method is similar to theconferencing method 3300.

15. BROADCASTING

In some embodiments, at least one of the micro-services 2421-2423 ofFIG. 24A is a broadcasting micro-service.

In some embodiments, a broadcasting micro-service method that isperformed at a multi-tenant media communication platform system (e.g.,the system 2400 of FIG. 24) is similar to the method 2600. In someembodiments, the multi-tenant media communication platform systemincludes a plurality of media communication micro-services (e.g.,2421-2423 of FIG. 24A) and micro-service configuration for a pluralityof entities (e.g., the entities corresponding to the systems 2451-2455of FIG. 24A, the entities depicted in FIG. 24B) configured for use ofthe platform system (e.g., 2400). The plurality of media communicationmicro-services includes at least one broadcasting micro-service. In someimplementations, the broadcasting micro-service configuration is managedby operational services of the platform system (e.g., the operationalservices 2499 of FIG. 24A). In some implementations, the broadcastingmicro-service configuration is managed by an account system of theplatform system (e.g., the account system 2430 of FIG. 24B). In someimplementations, the broadcasting micro-service configuration is managedby a policy engine of the platform system (e.g., the policy engine 2431of FIG. 24B). In some implementations, the broadcasting micro-serviceconfiguration is managed by the broadcasting micro-service of theplatform system (e.g., 2421-2423 FIG. 24A).

The broadcasting micro-service method includes: enrolling an entity inthe platform system (e.g., 2400), enrolling the entity comprisingsetting entity configuration for use of the broadcasting micro-serviceby the entity (e.g., enrolling in a manner similar to the process S2610of FIG. 26); processing a broadcasting micro-service request accordingto the entity configuration for the entity, the broadcastingmicro-service request being a request for use of the broadcastingmicro-service on behalf of the entity (e.g., processing in a mannersimilar to the process S2620 of FIG. 26); accounting for the use of thebroadcasting micro-service on behalf of the entity (e.g., accounting foruse in a manner similar to the process S2630 of FIG. 26); and generatingbilling information for the entity based on the accounting for the useof the broadcasting micro-service on behalf of the entity (e.g.,generating billing information in a manner similar to the process S2640of FIG. 26).

The plurality of entities include at least one of a platform account,sub-account, organization, user, and service instance. Entityconfiguration is received from at least one external system via anaccount management interface, the account management interface includinga least one of an account portal user interface and an accountmanagement API. Entity configuration for the entity includesmicro-service configuration for use of the broadcasting micro-service bythe entity. The micro-service configuration for the broadcastingmicro-service specifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to at leastone application logic URI, an event callback URI, and an eventapplication logic URI. In some implementations, micro-serviceconfiguration for the broadcasting micro-service specifies at least oneof: an endpoint mapping to at least one application logic URI of amicro-service of the platform system 2400, an event callback URI of amicro-service of the platform system 2400, and an event applicationlogic URI of a micro-service of the platform system 2400. In someimplementations, micro-service configuration for the broadcastingmicro-service specifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to at leastone application logic URI of an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG.24A), an event callback URI of an external system, and an eventapplication logic URI of an external system.

The platform system includes at least one broadcasting micro-service APIresource for the enrolled entity.

The use of the broadcasting micro-service includes at least onecomputing resource of the platform system 2400 executingcomputer-readable instructions of the broadcasting micro-service.

The platform system 2400 includes at least one regionally distributedmicro-service, and the platform system 2400 includes computing resourcesin at least two geographic regions for the regionally distributedmicro-service. The platform system 2400 (e.g., the resource managementsystem 2490 of FIG. 24A) determines computing resources for use of theregionally distributed micro-service based on a region of at least onemedia communication endpoint of media communication that uses theregionally distributed micro-service. In some implementations, thebroadcasting micro-service is a regionally distributed micro-service.

Input

In some implementations, the broadcasting micro-service receivesbroadcast information as an input. In some implementations, thebroadcasting micro-service receives the input via the broadcastingmicro-service API (e.g., one of 2491-2493 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, broadcast information includes information for at leastone of one or more destination communication endpoints, media to bebroadcasted, and a communication session to be broadcasted.

In some implementations, the broadcasting micro-service receives theinput from an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, an external system of the enrolled entity provides theinput via a request to the generated broadcasting micro-service APIresource of the broadcasting micro-service.

In some implementations, the broadcasting micro-service receives theinput from a micro-service (e.g., 2421-2423) of the platform system2400. In some implementations, micro-service configuration for themicro-service that provides the input to the broadcasting micro-servicespecifies an event callback URI of the broadcasting micro-service. Insome implementations, the micro-service that provides the input to thebroadcasting micro-service provides the input via a broadcastingmicro-service API call to the configured event callback URI of thebroadcasting micro-service.

Broadcasting

In some implementations, the broadcasting micro-service is similar tothe conferencing micro-service described above for FIG. 33. In someimplementations, the broadcasting micro-service manages a communicationsession with a plurality of communication endpoints (e.g., a conferencecall, a one-way conference call, a listen-only conference call, and thelike), in which a media stream is broadcasted to each of thecommunication endpoints. In some implementations, the media stream is amedia stream of another conference call (e.g., an earnings call). Insome implementations, the media stream is a media stream of a mediaresource. In some embodiments, an entity requesting use of thebroadcasting micro-service specifies a media stream to be broadcast, andspecifies at least one communication endpoint as a recipient of themedia stream to be broadcast. In some implementations, an entityspecifies a communication session (e.g., a communication session betweentwo commination endpoints, a conference call) as the media stream to bebroadcast. In some implementations, an entity specifies an establishedcommunication session as the media stream to be broadcast. In someimplementations, an entity specifies a communication session that is notestablished as the media stream to be broadcast. For example, an entitycan configure the broadcasting micro-service to broadcast anycommunication session between (or among) specified communicationendpoints to be broadcasted to specified broadcast recipients (e.g.,communication endpoints). In some implementations, the broadcastingmicro-service is configured for use in combination with a signalingmicro-service. In some implementations, the broadcasting micro-serviceperforms signaling. In some implementations, the broadcastingmicro-service performs signaling as described above for the signalingmicro-service.

Accounting for Use

In some implementations, accounting for use of the broadcastingmicro-service includes metering a number of communication endpoints thatreceive the broadcast. In some implementations, accounting for use ofthe broadcasting micro-service includes metering based on the mediastream being broadcast. In some implementations, accounting for use ofthe broadcasting micro-service includes metering based on a type ofmedia stream being broadcast. In some implementations, accounting foruse of the broadcasting micro-service includes metering a duration ofthe media stream. In some implementations, accounting for use of thebroadcasting micro-service is based on the media stream beingbroadcasted. In some implementations, billing for use of thebroadcasting service is based on a number of communication endpointsreceiving the broadcast. In some implementations, billing for use of thebroadcasting service is based on billing rate for the broadcasted mediastream.

In some implementations, metering for use of a broadcastingmicro-service is performed differently for different types ofbroadcasting micro-services.

In some implementations, the operational services 2499 performs themetering. In some implementations, the metering and logging system 2440performs the metering. In some implementations, the broadcastingmicro-service performs the metering (e.g., by using a metering andlogging layer of the broadcasting micro-service that is similar to themetering layer 1313 FIG. 13). In some implementations, the operationalservices 2499 performs the metering by using a metering and logginglayer of the broadcasting micro-service (e.g., a metering and logginglayer that is similar to the metering layer 1313 FIG. 13). In someimplementations, the metering and logging system 2440 performs themetering by using a metering and logging layer of the broadcastingmicro-service (e.g., a metering and logging layer that is similar to themetering layer 1313 FIG. 13).

16. NOTIFICATION

In some embodiments, at least one of the micro-services 2421-2423 ofFIG. 24A is a notification micro-service.

In some embodiments, a notification micro-service method that isperformed at a multi-tenant media communication platform system (e.g.,the system 2400 of FIG. 24) is similar to the method 2600. In someembodiments, the multi-tenant media communication platform systemincludes a plurality of media communication micro-services (e.g.,2421-2423 of FIG. 24A) and micro-service configuration for a pluralityof entities (e.g., the entities corresponding to the systems 2451-2455of FIG. 24A, the entities depicted in FIG. 24B) configured for use ofthe platform system (e.g., 2400). The plurality of media communicationmicro-services includes at least one notification micro-service. In someimplementations, the notification micro-service configuration is managedby operational services of the platform system (e.g., the operationalservices 2499 of FIG. 24A). In some implementations, the notificationmicro-service configuration is managed by an account system of theplatform system (e.g., the account system 2430 of FIG. 24B). In someimplementations, the notification micro-service configuration is managedby a policy engine of the platform system (e.g., the policy engine 2431of FIG. 24B). In some implementations, the notification micro-serviceconfiguration is managed by the notification micro-service of theplatform system (e.g., 2421-2423 FIG. 24A).

The notification micro-service method includes: enrolling an entity inthe platform system (e.g., 2400), enrolling the entity comprisingsetting entity configuration for use of the notification micro-serviceby the entity (e.g., enrolling in a manner similar to the process S2610of FIG. 26); processing a notification micro-service request accordingto the entity configuration for the entity, the notificationmicro-service request being a request for use of the notificationmicro-service on behalf of the entity (e.g., processing in a mannersimilar to the process S2620 of FIG. 26); accounting for the use of thenotification micro-service on behalf of the entity (e.g., accounting foruse in a manner similar to the process S2630 of FIG. 26); and generatingbilling information for the entity based on the accounting for the useof the notification micro-service on behalf of the entity (e.g.,generating billing information in a manner similar to the process S2640of FIG. 26).

The plurality of entities include at least one of a platform account,sub-account, organization, user, and service instance. Entityconfiguration is received from at least one external system via anaccount management interface, the account management interface includinga least one of an account portal user interface and an accountmanagement API. Entity configuration for the entity includesmicro-service configuration for use of the notification micro-service bythe entity. The micro-service configuration for the notificationmicro-service specifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to at leastone application logic URI, an event callback URI, and an eventapplication logic URI. In some implementations, micro-serviceconfiguration for the notification micro-service specifies at least oneof: an endpoint mapping to at least one application logic URI of amicro-service of the platform system 2400, an event callback URI of amicro-service of the platform system 2400, and an event applicationlogic URI of a micro-service of the platform system 2400. In someimplementations, micro-service configuration for the notificationmicro-service specifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to at leastone application logic URI of an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG.24A), an event callback URI of an external system, and an eventapplication logic URI of an external system.

The platform system includes at least one notification micro-service APIresource for the enrolled entity.

The use of the notification micro-service includes at least onecomputing resource of the platform system 2400 executingcomputer-readable instructions of the notification micro-service.

The platform system 2400 includes at least one regionally distributedmicro-service, and the platform system 2400 includes computing resourcesin at least two geographic regions for the regionally distributedmicro-service. The platform system 2400 (e.g., the resource managementsystem 2490 of FIG. 24A) determines computing resources for use of theregionally distributed micro-service based on a region of at least onemedia communication endpoint of media communication that uses theregionally distributed micro-service. In some implementations, thenotification micro-service is a regionally distributed micro-service.

Input

In some implementations, the notification micro-service receivesnotification information as an input. In some implementations, thenotification micro-service receives the input via the notificationmicro-service API (e.g., one of 2491-2493 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, notification information includes information of eventsto be published by the notification micro-service, and a type of pub/subchannel to use for publishing notifications to subscribers.

In some implementations, the notification micro-service receives theinput from an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, an external system of the enrolled entity provides theinput via a request to the generated notification micro-service APIresource of the notification micro-service.

In some implementations, the notification micro-service receives theinput from a micro-service (e.g., 2421-2423) of the platform system2400. In some implementations, micro-service configuration for themicro-service that provides the input to the notification micro-servicespecifies an event callback URI of the notification micro-service. Insome implementations, the micro-service that provides the input to thenotification micro-service provides the input via a notificationmicro-service API call to the configured event callback URI of thenotification micro-service.

Notification

In some implementations, the notification micro-service is similar to atleast one of the systems and methods described in U.S. Pat. No.8,838,707, which is hereby incorporated in its entirety by thisreference. In some implementations, the notification micro-service issimilar to at least one embodiment or implementation of the event routerdescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,838,707. In some implementations, thenotification micro-service performs a notification process similar to atleast one of the methods described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,838,707.

In some implementations, the notification micro-service is similar to atleast one of the systems and methods described in U.S. Pat. No.8,964,726, which is hereby incorporated in its entirety by thisreference. In some implementations, the notification micro-service issimilar to at least one embodiment or implementation of the event routerdescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,964,726. In some implementations, thenotification micro-service performs a notification process similar to atleast one of the methods described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,964,726.

In some implementations, the notification micro-service maintains atleast one publication and subscription (pub/sub) channel and for anentity, and manages distributing of event messages. In someimplementations, the event messages are generated by micro-services ofthe system 2400 that are used by the entity. In some implementations, asystem of the entity (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A) publishes content toa particular event channel configured for the entity at the notificationmicro-service. In some implementations, the entity configures one ormicro-services (of the system 2400) used by the entity to publishcontent to a particular event channel configured for the entity at thenotification micro-service. In some implementations, responsive topublication of content in the form of an event message, the notificationmicro-service distributes the event message to all subscribers of theevent.

In some implementations, the notification micro-service determines apublication and subscription (pub/sub) channel to be used for an entityfrom a set of two or more types of pub/sub channels (e.g., Google CloudPub/Sub, Apple Push Notification Service, and the like).

Accounting for Use

In some implementations, accounting for use of the notificationmicro-service includes at least one of metering a quantity ofnotifications for an entity (e.g., an account) associated with thenotification micro-service (e.g., an account associated with anotification request). In some implementations, accounting for use ofthe notification micro-service includes metering for use of thenotification micro-service based on a type of notification performed bythe notification micro-service (e.g., type of pub/sub system(s) used,type of events being published, and the like). In some implementations,metering for use of a notification micro-service is performeddifferently for different types of notification micro-services.

In some implementations, the operational services 2499 performs themetering. In some implementations, the metering and logging system 2440performs the metering. In some implementations, the notificationmicro-service performs the metering (e.g., by using a metering andlogging layer of the notification micro-service that is similar to themetering layer 1313 FIG. 13). In some implementations, the operationalservices 2499 performs the metering by using a metering and logginglayer of the notification micro-service (e.g., a metering and logginglayer that is similar to the metering layer 1313 FIG. 13). In someimplementations, the metering and logging system 2440 performs themetering by using a metering and logging layer of the notificationmicro-service (e.g., a metering and logging layer that is similar to themetering layer 1313 FIG. 13).

17. CALL PROGRESS

In some embodiments, at least one of the micro-services 2421-2423 ofFIG. 24A is a call progress micro-service.

In some embodiments, a call progress micro-service method that isperformed at a multi-tenant media communication platform system (e.g.,the system 2400 of FIG. 24) is similar to the method 2600. In someembodiments, the multi-tenant media communication platform systemincludes a plurality of media communication micro-services (e.g.,2421-2423 of FIG. 24A) and micro-service configuration for a pluralityof entities (e.g., the entities corresponding to the systems 2451-2455of FIG. 24A, the entities depicted in FIG. 24B) configured for use ofthe platform system (e.g., 2400). The plurality of media communicationmicro-services includes at least one call progress micro-service. Insome implementations, the call progress micro-service configuration ismanaged by operational services of the platform system (e.g., theoperational services 2499 of FIG. 24A). In some implementations, thecall progress micro-service configuration is managed by an accountsystem of the platform system (e.g., the account system 2430 of FIG.24B). In some implementations, the call progress micro-serviceconfiguration is managed by a policy engine of the platform system(e.g., the policy engine 2431 of FIG. 24B). In some implementations, thecall progress micro-service configuration is managed by the callprogress micro-service of the platform system (e.g., 2421-2423 FIG.24A).

In some implementations, the call progress micro-service is included ina conferencing micro-service.

The call progress micro-service method includes: enrolling an entity inthe platform system (e.g., 2400), enrolling the entity comprisingsetting entity configuration for use of the call progress micro-serviceby the entity (e.g., enrolling in a manner similar to the process S2610of FIG. 26); processing a call progress micro-service request accordingto the entity configuration for the entity, the call progressmicro-service request being a request for use of the call progressmicro-service on behalf of the entity (e.g., processing in a mannersimilar to the process S2620 of FIG. 26); accounting for the use of thecall progress micro-service on behalf of the entity (e.g., accountingfor use in a manner similar to the process S2630 of FIG. 26); andgenerating billing information for the entity based on the accountingfor the use of the call progress micro-service on behalf of the entity(e.g., generating billing information in a manner similar to the processS2640 of FIG. 26).

The plurality of entities include at least one of a platform account,sub-account, organization, user, and service instance. Entityconfiguration is received from at least one external system via anaccount management interface, the account management interface includinga least one of an account portal user interface and an accountmanagement API. Entity configuration for the entity includesmicro-service configuration for use of the call progress micro-serviceby the entity. The micro-service configuration for the call progressmicro-service specifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to at leastone application logic URI, an event callback URI, and an eventapplication logic URI. In some implementations, micro-serviceconfiguration for the call progress micro-service specifies at least oneof: an endpoint mapping to at least one application logic URI of amicro-service of the platform system 2400, an event callback URI of amicro-service of the platform system 2400, and an event applicationlogic URI of a micro-service of the platform system 2400. In someimplementations, micro-service configuration for the call progressmicro-service specifies at least one of: an endpoint mapping to at leastone application logic URI of an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG.24A), an event callback URI of an external system, and an eventapplication logic URI of an external system.

The platform system includes at least one call progress micro-serviceAPI resource for the enrolled entity.

The use of the call progress micro-service includes at least onecomputing resource of the platform system 2400 executingcomputer-readable instructions of the call progress micro-service.

The platform system 2400 includes at least one regionally distributedmicro-service, and the platform system 2400 includes computing resourcesin at least two geographic regions for the regionally distributedmicro-service. The platform system 2400 (e.g., the resource managementsystem 2490 of FIG. 24A) determines computing resources for use of theregionally distributed micro-service based on a region of at least onemedia communication endpoint of media communication that uses theregionally distributed micro-service.

Input

In some implementations, the call progress micro-service receivescommunication session information as an input. In some implementations,the call progress micro-service receives the input via the call progressmicro-service API (e.g., one of 2491-2493 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, communication session information includes at least oneof caller ID information of at least one call session, communicationdevice input information of at least one call session, DTMF inputdetection information detected for at least one call session, speechrecognition information of at least one call session, speech detectioninformation of at least one call session, authentication information ofat least one call session. In some implementations, the authenticationinformation is provided by a participant via an out-of-bandcommunication (e.g., via communication with a Web server), and theparticipant provides the authentication information along withinformation identifying at least one corresponding communicationsession. In some implementations, the call progress micro-servicereceives the communication session information from at least oneapplication server. In some implementations, the call progressmicro-service receives the communication session information from atleast one conferencing micro-service. In some implementations, the callprogress micro-service receives the communication session informationfrom at least one signaling micro-service. In some implementations, thecall progress micro-service receives the communication sessioninformation directly from a system of at least one participant of acommunication session. In some implementations, the call progressmicro-service receives the communication session information from aninput detection micro-service, such as the input detectionmicro-services described herein.

In some implementations, the call progress micro-service receives theinput from an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, an external system of the enrolled entity provides theinput via a request to the generated call progress micro-service APIresource of the call progress micro-service.

In some implementations, the call progress micro-service receives theinput from a micro-service (e.g., 2421-2423) of the platform system2400. In some implementations, micro-service configuration for themicro-service that provides the input to the call progress micro-servicespecifies an event callback URI of the call progress micro-service. Insome implementations, the micro-service that provides the input to thecall progress micro-service provides the input via a call progressmicro-service API call to the configured event callback URI of the callprogress micro-service.

Output

In some implementations, the call progress micro-service provides atleast one of call progress information and a reference to call progressinformation (e.g., URI) as an output. In some implementations, the callprogress micro-service provides the output via the call progressmicro-service API (e.g., one of 2491-2493 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, the call progress information includes at least one ofinformation identifying participants of a communication session (e.g.,identities of participants in a communication session between twocommunication endpoints, identities of participants in a conferencecall), information indicating a number of participants in a conferencecall, information indicating times at which one or more participantsjoined a conference call, information indicating times at which one ormore participants left a conference call, information indicating timesat which at least one participant spoke, information indicating aspeaking duration for at least one participant.

In some implementations, the call progress micro-service provides theoutput to an external system (e.g., 2451-2455 of FIG. 24A). In someimplementations, micro-service configuration for the call progressmicro-service specifies an event callback URI of the external system. Insome implementations, the call progress micro-service provides theoutput via a request to the configured event callback URI of theexternal system. In some implementations, micro-service configurationfor the call progress micro-service specifies an event application logicURI of the external system. In some implementations, the call progressmicro-service retrieves application instructions from the externalsystem by providing a request to the application logic URI, and the callprogress micro-service executes the retrieved application instructionsto process the output.

In some implementations, the call progress micro-service provides theoutput to a micro-service (e.g., 2421-2423) of the platform system 2400.In some implementations, micro-service configuration for the callprogress micro-service specifies an event callback URI of anothermicro-service of the platform system 2400. In some implementations, theevent callback URI is a URI of a resource of the other micro-servicethat the platform system 2400 generates for the enrolled entity duringenrollment of the entity for the other micro-service. In someimplementations, the call progress micro-service provides the output viaa request to the configured event callback URI of the othermicro-service. In some implementations, micro-service configuration forthe call progress micro-service specifies an event application logic URIof another micro-service of the platform system 2400. In someimplementations, the event application logic URI is a URI of a resourceof the other micro-service that the platform system 2400 generates forthe enrolled entity during enrollment of the entity for the othermicro-service. In some implementations, the call progress micro-serviceretrieves application instructions from the other micro-service byproviding a request to the application logic URI, and the call progressmicro-service executes the retrieved application instructions to processthe output.

Call Progress

In some implementations, the call progress micro-service determines thecall progress information from the communication session informationreceived as input. In some implementations, the call progressmicro-service identifies at least one participant from caller IDinformation of the communication session information.

In some implementations, the call progress micro-service identifies atleast one participant from device input information of the communicationsession information. In some implementations, device input informationincludes data of audible speech captured by a device of at least oneparticipant (e.g., a recording or audio capture of a participantspeaking their name into a microphone after being prompted to statetheir name). In some implementations, the call progress micro-serviceidentifies at least one participant from DTMF input detectioninformation of the communication session information. In someimplementations, the call progress micro-service identifies at least oneparticipant from speech recognition information of the communicationsession information. In some implementations, the call progressmicro-service identifies at least one participant from speech detectioninformation of the communication session information. In someimplementations, the call progress micro-service identifies at least oneparticipant from authentication information of the communication sessioninformation.

In some implementations, the call progress micro-service determines callprogress for a conference session (e.g., a voice conference callsession, a video conference call session, and the like) managed byconferencing micro-service described above for FIG. 33.

Accounting for Use

In some implementations, accounting for use of the call progressmicro-service includes at least one of metering time of the callprogress process, metering a duration of the call progress process,metering a quantity of the call progress process for an entity (e.g., anaccount) associated with the call progress process (e.g., an accountassociated with a call progress request). In some implementations,accounting for use of the call progress micro-service includes meteringfor use of the call progress micro-service based on a number ofcommunication endpoints of the communication session (e.g., conferencecall, two party communication session). In some implementations,accounting for use of the call progress micro-service includes meteringfor use of the call progress micro-service based the type of callprogress information output by the call progress micro-service (e.g.,current participants, history of participants joining and leaving,determining speaking duration for each speaker, and the like,notifications when specified participants join or leave). In someimplementations, accounting for use of the call progress micro-serviceincludes metering for use of the call progress micro-service based thetype of processed used to determine participant identities (e.g., speechrecognition, use of an application server to acquire authenticationinformation, DTMF detection, and the like). In some implementations,metering for use of a call progress micro-service is performeddifferently for different types of call progress micro-services.

In some implementations, the operational services 2499 performs themetering. In some implementations, the metering and logging system 2440performs the metering. In some implementations, the call progressmicro-service performs the metering (e.g., by using a metering andlogging layer of the call progress micro-service that is similar to themetering layer 1313 FIG. 13). In some implementations, the operationalservices 2499 performs the metering by using a metering and logginglayer of the call progress micro-service (e.g., a metering and logginglayer that is similar to the metering layer 1313 FIG. 13). In someimplementations, the metering and logging system 2440 performs themetering by using a metering and logging layer of the call progressmicro-service (e.g., a metering and logging layer that is similar to themetering layer 1313 FIG. 13).

18. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE: COMMUNICATION PLATFORM SYSTEM

FIG. 28 is an architecture diagram of a system (e.g., the communicationplatform system 2400 of FIG. 24A) according to an implementation inwhich the system is implemented by a server device. In someimplementations, the system is implemented by a plurality of devices. Insome implementations, the system 2400 is similar to the system 100 ofFIG. 1. In some implementations, the system 2400 is similar to thesystem 1300 of FIG. 13.

The bus 2801 interfaces with the processors 2801A-2801N, the main memory(e.g., a random access memory (RAM)) 2822, a read only memory (ROM)2804, a processor-readable storage medium 2805, and a network device2811. In some implementations, the system 2400 includes at least one ofa display device and a user input device.

The processors 2801A-2801N may take many forms, such as ARM processors,X86 processors, and the like.

In some implementations, the system (e.g., 2400) includes at least oneof a central processing unit (processor) and a multi-processor unit(MPU).

The processors 2801A-2801N and the main memory 2822 form a processingunit 2899. In some embodiments, the processing unit includes one or moreprocessors communicatively coupled to one or more of a RAM, ROM, andmachine-readable storage medium; the one or more processors of theprocessing unit receive instructions stored by the one or more of a RAM,ROM, and machine-readable storage medium via a bus; and the one or moreprocessors execute the received instructions. In some embodiments, theprocessing unit is an ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit). Insome embodiments, the processing unit is a SoC (System-on-Chip). In someembodiments, the processing unit includes one or more of a theoperational services, the communication platform API system, and one ormore micro-services.

The network adapter device 2811 provides one or more wired or wirelessinterfaces for exchanging data and commands between the system (e.g.,2400) and other devices, such as an external system (e.g., 2451-2455).Such wired and wireless interfaces include, for example, a universalserial bus (USB) interface, Bluetooth interface, Wi-Fi interface,Ethernet interface, near field communication (NFC) interface, and thelike.

Machine-executable instructions in software programs (such as anoperating system, application programs, and device drivers) are loadedinto the memory 2822 (of the processing unit 2899) from theprocessor-readable storage medium 2805, the ROM 2804 or any otherstorage location. During execution of these software programs, therespective machine-executable instructions are accessed by at least oneof processors 2801A-2801N (of the processing unit 2899) via the bus2801, and then executed by at least one of processors 2801A-2801N. Dataused by the software programs are also stored in the memory 2822, andsuch data is accessed by at least one of processors 2801A-2801N duringexecution of the machine-executable instructions of the softwareprograms. The processor-readable storage medium 2805 is one of (or acombination of two or more of) a hard drive, a flash drive, a DVD, a CD,an optical disk, a floppy disk, a flash storage, a solid state drive, aROM, an EEPROM, an electronic circuit, a semiconductor memory device,and the like. The processor-readable storage medium 2805 includesmachine-executable instructions (and related data) for an operatingsystem 2812, software programs 2813, device drivers 2814, and thecommunication platform 2820 of the system 2400. The machine-executableinstructions (and related data) for the communication platform 2820include machine-executable instructions (and related data) for theoperational services 2499, the communication platform API System 2483,and the micro-services 2421-2423.

19. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE: EXTERNAL SYSTEM

FIG. 29 is an architecture diagram of an external system (e.g., anentity external system, such as, for example, one of the entity systems2451-2453 of FIG. 24A) according to an implementation in which theexternal system is implemented by a server device. In someimplementations, the external system is implemented by a plurality ofdevices.

The bus 2901 interfaces with the processors 2901A-2901N, the main memory(e.g., a random access memory (RAM)) 2922, a read only memory (ROM)2904, a processor-readable storage medium 2905, and a network device2911. In some implementations, the external system includes a displaydevice and a user input device.

The processors 2901A-2901N may take many forms, such as ARM processors,X86 processors, and the like.

In some implementations, the server device includes at least one of acentral processing unit (processor) and a multi-processor unit (MPU).

The processors 2901A-2901N and the main memory 2922 form a processingunit 2999. In some embodiments, the processing unit includes one or moreprocessors communicatively coupled to one or more of a RAM, ROM, andmachine-readable storage medium; the one or more processors of theprocessing unit receive instructions stored by the one or more of a RAM,ROM, and machine-readable storage medium via a bus; and the one or moreprocessors execute the received instructions. In some embodiments, theprocessing unit is an ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit). Insome embodiments, the processing unit is a SoC (System-on-Chip).

The network adapter device 2911 provides one or more wired or wirelessinterfaces for exchanging data and commands between the external systemand other devices, such as the system 2400 of FIG. 24A. Such wired andwireless interfaces include, for example, a universal serial bus (USB)interface, Bluetooth interface, Wi-Fi interface, Ethernet interface,near field communication (NFC) interface, and the like.

Machine-executable instructions in software programs (such as anoperating system, application programs, and device drivers) are loadedinto the memory 2922 (of the processing unit 2999) from theprocessor-readable storage medium 2905, the ROM 2904 or any otherstorage location. During execution of these software programs, therespective machine-executable instructions are accessed by at least oneof processors 29001A-29001N (of the processing unit 2999) via the bus2901, and then executed by at least one of processors 2901A-2901N. Dataused by the software programs are also stored in the memory 2922, andsuch data is accessed by at least one of processors 2901A-2901N duringexecution of the machine-executable instructions of the softwareprograms. The processor-readable storage medium 2905 is one of (or acombination of two or more of) a hard drive, a flash drive, a DVD, a CD,an optical disk, a floppy disk, a flash storage, a solid state drive, aROM, an EEPROM, an electronic circuit, a semiconductor memory device,and the like. The processor-readable storage medium 2905 includesmachine-executable instructions (and related data) for an operatingsystem 2912, software programs 2913, device drivers 2914, and data 2920.

20. MACHINES

The system and method of the preferred embodiment and variations thereofcan be embodied and/or implemented at least in part as a machineconfigured to receive a computer-readable medium storingcomputer-readable instructions. The instructions are preferably executedby computer-executable components preferably integrated with the STMSplatform. The computer-readable medium can be stored on any suitablecomputer-readable media such as RAMs, ROMs, flash memory, EEPROMs,optical devices (CD or DVD), hard drives, floppy drives, or any suitabledevice. The computer-executable component is preferably a general orapplication specific processor, but any suitable dedicated hardware orhardware/firmware combination device can alternatively or additionallyexecute the instructions.

21. CONCLUSION

As a person skilled in the art will recognize from the previous detaileddescription and from the figures and claims, modifications and changescan be made to the preferred embodiments of the invention withoutdeparting from the scope of this invention defined in the followingclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by acommunication platform, a request to provide a micro-service inassociation with a communication session between a first communicationendpoint and a second endpoint, the communication session beingassociated with a client account of the communication platform;transmitting, by the communication platform, a communication to acomputing system providing the micro-service, the communicationincluding state data associated with the communication session betweenthe first communication endpoint and the second endpoint; receivingapplication logic from the computing system, the computing system havinggenerated the application logic based on the state data included in thecommunication; and executing, by the communication platform, theapplication logic to provide the micro-service in relation to thecommunication session.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:establishing, for the client account, a micro-service configurationdescribing conditions for use of the micro-service by the clientaccount; and processing the request according to the conditions for useof the micro-service described by the micro-service configuration. 3.The method of claim 2, further comprising: accounting for usage of themicro-service in association with the communication session based on abilling profile dictated by the conditions for use of the micro-servicedescribed by the micro-service configuration.
 4. The method of claim 3,further comprising: establishing, for the client account, a secondmicro-service configuration describing conditions for use of a secondmicro-service by the client account; receiving a second request toprovide the second micro-service in association with the communicationsession; processing the second request according to the conditions foruse of the second micro-service described by the second micro-serviceconfiguration; and accounting for usage of the second micro-service inassociation with the communication session based on a second billingprofile dictated by the conditions for use of the second micro-servicedescribed by the second micro-service configuration, the second billingprofile being different than the billing profile.
 5. The method of claim4, further comprising: generating, for the client account, billinginformation for the communication session based on the accounting forusage of the micro-service in association with the communication sessionand the accounting for usage of the second micro-service in associationwith the communication session.
 6. The method of claim 4, furthercomprising: establishing, for a second client account of thecommunication platform, a third micro-service configuration describingconditions for use of the micro-service by the second client account,the conditions for use of the micro-service by the second client accountbeing different than the conditions for use of the micro-service by theclient account.
 7. The method of claim 6, further comprising: accountingfor usage of the micro-service in association with a secondcommunication session of the second client account based on a secondbilling profile dictated by the conditions for use of the micro-servicedescribed by the third micro-service configuration.
 8. The method ofclaim 7, further comprising: generating, for the client account, firstbilling information for the communication session based on theaccounting for usage of the micro-service in association with thecommunication session; and generating, for the second client account,second billing information for the second communication session based onthe accounting for usage of the micro-service in association with thesecond communication session.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein themicro-service is a conferencing micro-service and the secondmicro-service is a messaging micro-service.
 10. A communication platformcomprising: one or more computer processors; and one or morecomputer-readable mediums storing instructions that, when executed bythe one or more computer processors, cause the communication platform toperform operations comprising: receiving a request to provide amicro-service in association with a communication session between afirst communication endpoint and a second endpoint, the communicationsession being associated with a client account of the communicationplatform; transmitting a communication to a computing system providingthe micro-service, the communication including state data associatedwith the communication session between the first communication endpointand the second endpoint; receiving application logic from the computingsystem, the computing system having generated the application logicbased on the state data included in the communication; and executing theapplication logic to provide the micro-service in relation to thecommunication session.
 11. The communication platform of claim 10, theoperations further comprising: establishing, for the client account, amicro-service configuration describing conditions for use of themicro-service by the client account; and processing the requestaccording to the conditions for use of the micro-service described bythe micro-service configuration.
 12. The communication platform of claim11, the operations further comprising: accounting for usage of themicro-service in association with the communication session based on abilling profile dictated by the conditions for use of the micro-servicedescribed by the micro-service configuration.
 13. The communicationplatform of claim 12, the operations further comprising: establishing,for the client account, a second micro-service configuration describingconditions for use of a second micro-service by the client account;receiving a second request to provide the second micro-service inassociation with the communication session; processing the secondrequest according to the conditions for use of the second micro-servicedescribed by the second micro-service configuration; and accounting forusage of the second micro-service in association with the communicationsession based on a second billing profile dictated by the conditions foruse of the second micro-service described by the second micro-serviceconfiguration, the second billing profile being different than thebilling profile.
 14. The communication platform of claim 13, theoperations further comprising: generating, for the client account,billing information for the communication session based on theaccounting for usage of the micro-service in association with thecommunication session and the accounting for usage of the secondmicro-service in association with the communication session.
 15. Thecommunication platform of claim 13, the operations further comprising:establishing, for a second client account of the communication platform,a third micro-service configuration describing conditions for use of themicro-service by the second client account, the conditions for use ofthe micro-service by the second client account being different than theconditions for use of the micro-service by the client account.
 16. Thecommunication platform of claim 15, the operations further comprising:accounting for usage of the micro-service in association with a secondcommunication session of the second client account based on a secondbilling profile dictated by the conditions for use of the micro-servicedescribed by the third micro-service configuration.
 17. Thecommunication platform of claim 16, the operations further comprising:generating, for the client account, first billing information for thecommunication session based on the accounting for usage of themicro-service in association with the communication session; andgenerating, for the second client account, second billing informationfor the second communication session based on the accounting for usageof the micro-service in association with the second communicationsession.
 18. The communication platform of claim 16, wherein themicro-service is a conferencing micro-service and the secondmicro-service is a messaging micro-service.
 19. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by oneor more computer processors of a communication platform, cause thecommunication platform to perform operations comprising: receiving arequest to provide a micro-service in association with a communicationsession between a first communication endpoint and a second endpoint,the communication session being associated with a client account of thecommunication platform; transmitting a communication to a computingsystem providing the micro-service, the communication including statedata associated with the communication session between the firstcommunication endpoint and the second endpoint; receiving applicationlogic from the computing system, the computing system having generatedthe application logic based on the state data included in thecommunication; and executing the application logic to provide themicro-service in relation to the communication session.
 20. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, the operationsfurther comprising: establishing, for the client account, amicro-service configuration describing conditions for use of themicro-service by the client account; and processing the requestaccording to the conditions for use of the micro-service described bythe micro-service configuration.